We have three clinical boards: small animal, equine and production animal
Our Clinical Board

Making the most of our network.

Sharing ideas, knowledge and experience across our family of practices is one of the many advantages of being part of a larger group like VetPartners. It is one of the key ways for us to become even better at what we do and provide outstanding care for patients.

The VetPartners Clinical Board is a vast network of people working in our practices and across the species groups and is one of the ways that our central support team and practices stay connected.

The Clinical Board ensures clinical work is high on the agenda for all our activities and supports clinical teams to constantly improve standards of care.

It is also responsible for our clinical, educational and research functions and, with others, help VetPartners work towards being the best provider of veterinary healthcare and the best place to work.

We often partner with like-minded people and organisations like charities, policy makers and universities.

We listen to others and find out what our practice teams want or need from the Clinical Board.

The foundation of the Clinical Board’s structure is the special interest groups (SIGs), which network people with similar clinical interests from different practices together so they can provide support on difficult cases, learn from and mentor each other and develop useful resources for our practices.

We have three species boards of 10 people – small animal, equine and production animal – who represent our clinical teams and direct the strategy and activities of the Clinical Board. These boards are diverse and inclusive, with vets and non-vets, young graduates, veterinary nurses, specialists, general practitioners and those with 20-plus years’ experience all working together.

Discover VetPartners Clinical Annual Report 2022

Rachel Dean

Clinical Board introduction

Caroline Scobie

Being a member of the Clinical Board

Tamsin Harris-Bryant

Being a member of the Clinical Board

"We are delighted with the success of our Clinical Board, which provides us with a great opportunity to engage with our teams."
Rachel Dean
Director of clinical research and excellence in practice

What is the role of the VetPartners Clinical Board?

The Clinical Board supports the clinical teams to do the best job they can, helping them to improve clinical outcomes for our patients and support our clients.

We want to deliver outstanding care to our patients by supporting our teams to have an evidence-based approach to healthcare and we do this in a number of ways:

  • Learning and development – Equipping them with skills and knowledge they need for lifelong professional development.
  • Quality improvement – Looking at our current standards of care and finding ways of making them better.
  • Research and innovation – We constantly need new information and technologies to improve care.
  • Healthy clinical culture – Good teams that work together well means our patients will receive the best care possible.

Evidence-based veterinary medicine manifesto

VetPartners is delighted to endorse and contribute to the evidence-based veterinary manifesto.

Evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM) is about making sure the veterinary profession uses the best information available to make informed decisions about the patients we care for. The manifesto describes the tasks that need to be done to enable the veterinary professions to deliver EBVM in a practical way that ensures our patients are at the centre of what we do.

VetPartners director of clinical research and excellence in practice Dr Rachel Dean has been integral in bringing the EBVM manifesto to life with colleagues in practice, academia, publishing, professional organisations and the pharmaceutical industry.

Rachel has an MSc in evidence-based healthcare from the University of Oxford and is a recognised international leader in EBVM.

Dr Dean said: “Practising in an evidence-based way is critical to ensure we do the right thing for the right patient at the right time. A key part of the VetPartners vision is to deliver outstanding care for our patients and EBVM is a route to achieving this.

“My role as co-chair of the Clinical Board at VetPartners is to support our teams to constantly develop and improve our standards of care. We want to be the best we can for our patients, our clients and ourselves – this is real life EBVM.”

The EBVM manifesto has several parts and its purpose is to ensure everyone, including clients, have a role to play in improving veterinary healthcare every day. The EBVM manifesto is about action and not words and demonstrates that a diverse group of people need to work together to improve animal health.

Dr Dean added: “VetPartners don’t want to just endorse the manifesto. We want to help bring it to life and actively contribute to the tasks that need to be done. Our clinical teams are the ones that can truly make a difference and change practice for good.

“As a large group of practices, we are perfectly placed to help educate clinical teams and clients about the importance of EBVM. We can also contribute to developing new evidence through our quality improvement activities and research projects, as well as integrating current evidence into practice.

“We look forward to working with other organisations involved with the manifesto. Together we will make a difference.”