Speaker David Paterson
Fri, Mar 9th 2018 at 12:55 pm - 2:10 pm
Topic: My Job Talk #2
Rotary Club of Stirling Meeting of 9/3/18.
After last week's meeting was cancelled because of the snow, President Stewart Wilson was glad to welcome members once again to our Friday meeting. Colin Bayes reported on our 10-pin bowling match against Alloa. Despite some excellent individual scores, we were well outclassed overall! John Rankin has now arranged dates for the Spring, Summer and Arran golf outings.
Our speaker veterinarian, David Paterson's talk was My Job 2. In practice locally for many years, he began thinking about retirement about three years ago. In the past he would have sold the practice on to a younger vet, but nowadays not many upcoming vets are keen to take on the responsibility of financing and running their own practice. The alternative is to join a larger corporate group of vets, in this case IVC who run 800 practices in the UK and Europe. One of the benefits of this group is that they allow some freedom in the way each practice is run as long as it fits into the basic operating standards of IVC. The corporate group is in a position to finance developments when required, such as a new partner or expansion of the practice, with one of the existing vets remaining in charge of the surgery. David joined the clinical board of the company and is now group veterinary advisor for the UK and NI covering 48 practices. As well as overseeing each practice, the group is involved in buying drugs and equipment, offering advice to practices, and runs a two-year course for newly qualified vets.
Although his work is now office based with a lot of travel, David is enjoying the change and is able to bring his years of experience to the group. The topic of designer dogs was raised. Bought more as an ornament than as a pet, they are often genetically poor, resulting in many health problems, despite which people continue to buy them often on line or from poor quality outlets. This has been difficult to control as it is very profitable for the sellers, but of course involves a poor quality of life for the animals. The V.O.T was given by Sandy Leven.
Our next meeting on 16/3/18 will be a business meeting.
Ian Richardson
After last week's meeting was cancelled because of the snow, President Stewart Wilson was glad to welcome members once again to our Friday meeting. Colin Bayes reported on our 10-pin bowling match against Alloa. Despite some excellent individual scores, we were well outclassed overall! John Rankin has now arranged dates for the Spring, Summer and Arran golf outings.
Our speaker veterinarian, David Paterson's talk was My Job 2. In practice locally for many years, he began thinking about retirement about three years ago. In the past he would have sold the practice on to a younger vet, but nowadays not many upcoming vets are keen to take on the responsibility of financing and running their own practice. The alternative is to join a larger corporate group of vets, in this case IVC who run 800 practices in the UK and Europe. One of the benefits of this group is that they allow some freedom in the way each practice is run as long as it fits into the basic operating standards of IVC. The corporate group is in a position to finance developments when required, such as a new partner or expansion of the practice, with one of the existing vets remaining in charge of the surgery. David joined the clinical board of the company and is now group veterinary advisor for the UK and NI covering 48 practices. As well as overseeing each practice, the group is involved in buying drugs and equipment, offering advice to practices, and runs a two-year course for newly qualified vets.
Although his work is now office based with a lot of travel, David is enjoying the change and is able to bring his years of experience to the group. The topic of designer dogs was raised. Bought more as an ornament than as a pet, they are often genetically poor, resulting in many health problems, despite which people continue to buy them often on line or from poor quality outlets. This has been difficult to control as it is very profitable for the sellers, but of course involves a poor quality of life for the animals. The V.O.T was given by Sandy Leven.
Our next meeting on 16/3/18 will be a business meeting.
Ian Richardson
