The 2009 congress of the Veterinary Practice Management Association was one of the best attended in its history and the new venue, the Nottingham Belfry, proved a winner.
There were three streams this year – “lecture”, “workshop” and “surgery” – covering a wide range of managerial topics as well as a number of more general issues, such as the state of the economy.
One speaker, Pippa Reffold, of Pips 1 Ltd, discussed profit and loss accounts and said there was a need to ensure that all employees were aware of how they could make a difference to the financial aspects within their practice. She said managers should explore methods whereby staff could make a direct financial impact.
“Profitability is the objective of all private practices,” she declared, “and cash is king. A business can be profitable but still run out of cash.” She added that extended credit terms could cripple a successful business.
Practices should teach staff what the profit and loss account means and demonstrate how cost savings and increased sales can affect profit. They should also explain what costs have to be covered each month as a minimum (the fixed costs), give them key targets they can work on, and also allow them to make suggestions.
“One of the unique and differentiating advantages a business has is its people, so why do businesses spend so little time enhancing this resource?” Ms Reffold asked, emphasising the need to share information with employees.
The view from the world of banking
THE keynote speaker at the start of the congress was Dennis Turner, chief economist at the HSBC.
Stating that “everything fell off a cliff from October on”, he made a number of observations:
- The slowdown in the economy has not been caused by the credit crunch, but it might slow down the recovery … without the credit crunch we’d have been pretty close to where we are now. We will have a very chastened banking system after the credit crunch.
- Governments have worked out that the less they do, the better the economy works. All we want from the Government is stability.
- The Government didn’t promise us very much and they have delivered on their promise.
- The recession in the early 90s was so bad that even people who had no intention of paying stopped buying.
- The British housewife knows that it’s wise to live within your means – even if you have to borrow to do so.
- On average, everyone owes about 19 months’ pay.
- Our view is that the worst of the recession will be over by the end of the year.
- Interest rates will continue to fall – unless of course they don’t. Three further comments:
- “By the time Gordon Brown left the Treasury he was like a student marking his own exam paper.”
- “The first thing that Gordon Brown does in the morning is smile – he likes to get it out of the way early.”
- “My wife’s credit card was stolen. I haven’t reported it because whoever has got it is spending less than she was.”
Getting the best out of people
Husband and wife, Jeremy and Caroline Johnson, both spoke during the first morning of the congress: Jeremy on project management, Caroline on team building, motivation and leadership.
Caroline stated that the difference between a run-of-the-mill manager and a great one is the ability to get the best out of people.
She gave four golden rules for dealing with puppies and children (the couple have two of each):
- recognise and reward good behaviour;
- ignore the rest – or at least tolerate it;
- address the more important problems immediately;
- let go – but be there for support and encouragement when required.
With staff, it was important, she said, to:
- recognise effort;
- focus on strengths;
- address issues as and when they arise (“it’s the wise, decent and fair thing to do”); and
- delegate and support.
“The veterinary profession seems to be poor at delegation,” Caroline concluded.
Jeremy stressed the importance of thorough advance planning and clear timescales to ensure projects ran smoothly and were completed on time and within budget.
He introduced the acronym MoSCoW for practices to consider at the outset: Must have; Should have; Could have; Won’t have this time
Providing out-of-hours care for practices
The opening address of the second day of the congress was given by Dr Richard Dixon, the founder, in 2001, of Vets Now.
He said that in 2001 the profession was looking to get the quality of its life back and client expectations were rising, with clients more demanding than ever before.
“We are in the middle,” he said, “meeting the needs of both the profession and clients – without competing.”
The first Vets Now practice opened in a PDSA clinic in Glasgow nearly eight years ago; now there are 33 clinics across the UK, turnover this year is expected to exceed £15 million and Vets Now is the biggest global employer of dedicated out-of-hours veterinary surgeons.
“We have made a lot of mistakes and done a lot of learning – and we still have a lot of improvements to make,” Dr Dixon continued.
The firm now employs just over 300 staff. “We are working with passionate, committed people,” he said. “We hire people primarily for their attitude. We try and recruit fabulous people.
“Caring is at the heart of what we do for our patients; it’s also important that we care for each other.
“We don’t want to be the McDonald’s of the veterinary profession where every branch is the same. We have given a lot of power away to local teams – but our values are non negotiable.
“We have given away much more power than most organisations are comfortable with, but it has worked. We emphasise the importance of the local team.”
The company is investing over £2 million in a new support office. “It’s more than we need now,” Dr Dixon said, “but it positions us for real growth in the future.”
He believed Vets Now had about 40% of the emergency clinic marketplace in the UK, “so there is plenty of scope yet”.
Keeping up to date with the VMRs
“Sadly, there are fraudulent prescriptions going around,” said Phil Sketchley, chief executive of NOAH, in his second address to the congress, this time on the veterinary medicines regulations.
A written prescription for a controlled drug is valid for three weeks, he said, while others are valid for six months. He recommended that vets should use the BVA’s standard prescription form.
Mr Sketchley said there were still many complaints about internet sales and there were inadequate controls on these, but “add to basket” purchases of POM products on websites were being banned.
Agreement had been reached with eBay that only AVM-GSL products could be sold there.
Only NFA-VPS and AVM-GSL products can be advertised to the public – on the internet or anywhere else, he said, adding that as a result of lobbying by both the BVA and NOAH there would be more enforcement.
The VMD was now tracking the internet to see that products were being sold in accordance with the regulations and whether illegal products were being sold. So far, he said, the VMD has 15 websites under investigation. A further 70 sites are classified as “borderline”.
In the last 18 months the VMD had confiscated £2 million worth of products – “a small but not insignificant amount”.
Mr Sketchley did not think there would be many more significant changes to the regulations in the foreseeable future.
- Responsibility for controlled drugs is likely to move from the Home Office to the VMD, Mr Sketchley said.
Getting ready for medicines’ inspections
Nobody knows how many veterinary practices or how many veterinary premises there are, the president of the Royal College, Jill Nute, told the congress.
“To date [22nd January] nearly 1,500 premises have emerged that we didn’t know about already,” she said. She explained that, come April, there would be a legal obligation to register premises from which veterinary medicines were dispensed and to record other places where medicines might be stored or kept. Mobile clinics would need to be registered.
Premises would be inspected on a four-year cycle to ensure compliance with the veterinary medicines regulations. Practices which were not in the Royal College’s practice standards scheme would be inspected by VMD inspectors, Mrs Nute explained, at a cost of £250 per inspection.
If there was a problem, the VMD would issue an improvement notice.
The VMD has promised a light touch on non compliance, she said, but it had the power to seize illegal medicines and would prosecute where improvement efforts failed.
“There will come a time when wholesalers will not be able to deliver to premises which are not registered,” Mrs Nute said.
Change from a gender perspective
“You are always going to be managing change,” said Linda Dempster of the UK Border Agency, who discussed the different ways in which men and women both think about and deal with change.
“But it can be difficult. Indeed it can be easier to move an entire building than re-allocate a car parking space!”
Stating that there was no truth in the rumour that women couldn’t park, she said “it is something we have to learn”.
Mrs Demspter finished with a quote from Henry Ford: “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
Keep focused to survive the tough times
“Tough times don’t last, but tough businesses do,” said Malcolm Gallagher of BizVision, a training firm based in Northumberland.
He urged practices to make their staff aware of their vision and values and to keep focused on their business plan. Keep a one-page plan, he said, and refer to it often. People make profits, he added, so appraise and reward them.
