Dr Peter Robinson

BVMS MRCVS

Candidate 15 of 20

Proposers: Marleen Weed, Dr Katharine Wiltshire

Contact details 

Address 47 Kinmond Court, Kenilworth Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 4QU

T 01926 430 669

M 07591 957 532

E [email protected]

W petrobins.co.uk

Candidate biography

I graduated from Glasgow Vet School 1971 and after a period in Veterinary Pathology I moved into mixed practice in Lincolnshire.

In the early 1980s I bought a traditional, 2-man, farm practice in Warwickshire; over the next 8 years I transformed it in to a 3-centre, 5-vet, modern mixed practice with a small animal/equine bias.

We were a VN training practice and I lectured to VN students at Matthew Bolton College, Birmingham. I was an Agricultural Training Board and Open University tutor.

The practice was sold in 1990 and after 2 years’ locum work, I moved into single-handed, small animal practice in Dubai, where I had to deal with every eventuality as it arose.

Back in the UK after 10 years, I worked in mixed, mainly small animal practice until November 2012. Since then I have been involved in regular small animal routine surgical work. In that role, I have been regularly working with, and mentoring, vet students and new graduates.

I am president of the Warwickshire Veterinary Clinical Club and I represented Warwickshire on BVA Council. I was a member of RCVS Council for 5 months in 2014 and I completed a full 4-year term in July 2019. 

Candidate statement

Why do you want to stand to be a member of RCVS Council?

The current CMA review has brought the profession into the public eye and as a result of this review the profession is about to enter a period of exciting change. I want to be part of those discussions/decisions.

I have long argued that the 1966 VSA needs a major overhaul; it is currently an enormous barrier for change.

• The act only allows the RCVS to regulate individual RCVS members (Veterinary Surgeons and RVNs); veterinary practice is unregulated. This is now relevant because 60% of practices are no longer owned by individual RCVS members, but by large unregulated corporations. The RCVS needs to be able to introduce mandatory, quality assured practice standards.
• Changes to the way we educate, and train veterinary students needs to be explored. Generalism is the face of our profession and must be better taught. In-work training, in the form of Apprentice Degrees, should be discussed.
• I have argued that courses should reflect the reality of practice. Small animal vets should be taught small animal medicine and farm/equine vets should be taught farm/equine medicine. The profession should move forward and discuss ‘limited licensure’.

What do you think you can bring to RCVS Council?

I bring a genuine belief that it is time for change; time to move on. The 1966 VSA has held the profession back for far too long.

• There has been no real change to veterinary education and training since the 1948 VSA allowed RCVS to approve the degree courses and final examination results from the 6 UK Universities that offered courses in Veterinary Medicine, and the incorporation of the 3 existing Veterinary Colleges into the universities of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• Veterinary Medicine has changed out of all recognition. The 2015 Supplemental Charter set the objectives of the College ‘to set, uphold and advance veterinary standards and to promote, encourage and advance the study and practice of the art and science of veterinary surgery and medicine’.
• The advancement of specialist qualifications, certificates and diplomas the art has largely to be ignored. Generalism, including the art, is the face of our profession and should be promoted and taught.
• This could be best achieved by exploring the introduction of Apprentice Degrees.

What relevant experience do you have?

• 50 unbroken years a ’generalist’ in clinical practice both in the UK and abroad. Just over 50% in dedicated small animal practice.
• Some experience of academia as a lecturer in Veterinary Pathology.
• Veterinary Nurse teaching, both as a training practice and in the classroom.
• I am President of the Warwickshire Veterinary Clinical Club, a position I have held for the last 23 years, leading a team providing 8-9 CPD meetings annually for Vets and RVNs mainly in Warwick/Leamington Spa area. These meetings were initially face-to-face but now, since Covid, via Zoom.
• Several years on BVA Council and a member of the Nominations and Awards Group. I was also a member of the Regulatory Reform Working Party in 2020.
• An RCVS Council member for 5 months in 2014 and a full term 2015-2019.
• Member of the RCVS Graduate Outcomes Working Party.

As an RCVS Council member I served on Standards Committee, VN Council, VN Education Committee, Register and Registration Subcommittee and I Chaired the AVP Panel of Assessors. In this latter role I worked closely with members of the RCVS Education team and attended Education Committee meetings.

Is there anything else you would like to add in support of your candidacy?

With the rise in the cost of living there has been a lot of discussion aimed at ‘Contextualised Care’, Care which is tailored to the individual patient and the individual client. It is not care of a lower standard, but care that cuts out expensive diagnostics that are so much part of practice today. Many of the patients we see in general practice are probably not ‘ill’ and would ‘recover’ without ’treatment’; it is the worry of the owner that we are dealing with. What is needed is an approach that, with the basic skills of taking a full history and carrying out a full physical examination, can identify those patients that will recover without the need to make a definitive diagnosis and supporting the owner through that process. Experience makes ‘Contextualised Care’ easier, but experience cannot be taught. Pragmatism and ‘the art’ are best taught in the workplace by established generalists. A new VSA will pave the way for a new approach to veterinary teaching and education.

Candidate answer to question from the profession 

Question: Does anyone have a realistic recommendation for how to improve our profession?

Answer: There have been so many changes to our profession in the last 15-20 years. Amongst other things:

• Practices have opted out of their own OOH provision
• Large corporations now own 60% of veterinary practices
• There has been a rapid rise in ‘specialisation’
• The cost of treatment has rocketed

I’m afraid I don’t have a single recommendation for how to improve our profession, but I do have some ideas.

The 1966 VSA Act must be updated! Getting the balance right, so that it benefits us all, is the challenge.

Some suggestions: -

• Mandatory, universal, quality assured Practice Standards
• Regulation of practices, not just individual vets and vet nurses
• Change the way we educate and train vets so that it is relevant to current working practices
• Consider Apprentice degrees where vets are trained in work and are paid while training
• Consider limited licensure; concentrate training on the eventual chosen career path of the student.
• Protect the Veterinary Nurse title and expand their role in practice

Apart from changes to the legal basis of our profession we need to continue to champion ‘generalism’; some 80% of vets are in general practice. General practice is not just a stepping stone to specialisation (but it can be!). We are not ’just general practitioners’, we are not ‘experienced non-experts’, we are the face of the profession. I would hope that the introduction of apprentice degrees and in-work training will help to promote general practice as a career in its own right.

We need to find a way to get that message across both to those who aspire to join our profession and those who are rapidly becoming disillusioned.