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Vet Tech pioneer among first to secure new qualification

Posted 21 October

Paragon Vet Tech Karen McNeil with calves at a farm at Gaitsgill, Dalston, Carlisle - picture credit: Jenny Woolgar Photography

A member of Paragon Veterinary Group’s farm team has become one of the first in the country to gain a pioneering new qualification from ÎÞÂ붯»­.

Karen McNeil has just gained a Vet Technician higher level 5 apprenticeship and is among the first cohort of students to take the course - which was launched as part of moves to formalise the status of Vet Techs, who work alongside vets performing routine tasks such as disbudding calves.

Karen is also the first in Cumbria to gain the qualification. She passed the two-year course after a final intense assessment carried out by a vet examiner watching her while she worked on farm.

 She said: “I am proud to be one of the first vet techs to qualify.”

It is the first time there has been a qualification available for Vet Technicians, a role well established in some countries abroad and now growing in the UK.

Karen said: “The goal is to achieve regulation and recognition for Vet Techs, comparable to that for Veterinary Nurses, and the launch of this course is a step towards that.

“The Vet Tech is an increasingly important role in this country, helping farmers to care for their animals to the highest standards. We do things like disbudding calves, mobility scoring, administering vaccines for pneumonia, assisting with TB testing and have recently launched a freeze branding service.”

Harper Adams, the specialist agricultural university based in Shropshire, launched the course after a group of trail-blazers approached the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons proposing that the role of Vet Technician should become a profession, said Karen.

She is also one of the founders of the newly formed British and Irish Veterinary Technician Association which held a conference with international speakers earlier this month at the Sixways Stadium in Worcester.

“I would like to see all Vet Techs take this qualification, and we are working to build the membership of the Association. Vet Techs are paraprofessionals,” said Karen.

Currently Vet Techs learn on the job. They are supervised by a veterinary surgeon, which will not change with the advent of qualification and regulation, said Karen, who has worked as a Vet Tech with Paragon for five years.

She is passionate about the role and added: “Everything a Vet Tech does is for animal health and welfare. We are a way for farmers to demonstrate to the public that everything is being done to the highest welfare standards.

“At the moment there is concern about an outbreak of Bluetongue and a shortage of vets, but if Vet Techs are recognised we will be well placed to help with surveillance work in the future.”

Karen lives in Blencogo and comes from a farming family.

Paragon Veterinary Group has Farm, Advanced Breeding, Small Animal and Equine divisions and centres at Dalston, Newbiggin near Penrith, Shap and Wetheral.