Originally from: coleen
                        
ACTION GROUP ASKED QUEEN FOR OMBUDSMAN FOR VETS

 AN ACTION group is to appeal to the Queen as a pet owner asking for the rules governing vets to be changed.
 A 4,000-signature petition requesting that an ombudsman is appointed to oversee the veterinary profession was handed in to Buckingham Palace recently.

 The petition was given originally to former Animal Welfare Minister Elliot Morley who put the issues to a House of Commons select committee which was to look at the profession.

 The action group was formed in a bid to make the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) more accountable for its own. Members, who have demonstrated outside the college's London premises, are demanding that incompetent vets should be properly disciplined and if need be banned or suspended.

 Co-founder of the group, Jan Mahoney, said at the time: "We put it to Mr Morley that the present system operated by the RCVS was not acceptable.

 "If a vet is found guilty of serious misconduct and ordered to be struck off the register he or she can appeal to a privy council within 28 days.

 "If appealed, the order does not take affect unless upheld by the privy council. Therefore the vet can continue to work while awaiting the appeal."

 But the group was unhappy with the outcome of the select committee meetings, feeling that the disciplinary side of the matter had not been dealt with satisfactorily.

 Shortly afterwards Mrs Mahoney asked for the petition to be given back and sought and received permission to give it to the Queen.

 Coleen
                        
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