UPDATE ON CANINE HEALTH SCHEMES AS ENGLAND ENTERS SECOND NATIONAL LOCKDOWN

In light of the national four-week lockdown that began in England yesterday (5 November), the British Veterinary Association (BVA) and The Kennel Club (KC) have announced the following changes to the Canine Health Schemes (CHS) in order to follow the new guidelines and restrictions, and also continue to process submissions.

As of Thursday 5 November the CHS office will be closed and the team will be working remotely.

Impact on veterinary practices

England: As part of BVA’s guidance to veterinary practices, how practices are able to operate and which services they will be able to offer in terms of health testing will be dependent on individual practice factors such as staffing levels, building layout, as well as the vets’ professional and clinical judgement, and we would urge all owners to respect their individual vet’s decisions in this matter.

Wales: During the firebreak lockdown (23 October – 8 November) veterinary practices must only undertake essential and urgent services and practices may need to delay x-rays and eye screenings. At the end of the firebreak lockdown, practices in Wales will be able to deliver veterinary services in line with Covid-safe requirements. However, during the England national lockdown, CHS is only able to process online submissions to the Hip and Elbow Schemes (see below).

Scotland and Northern Ireland: Veterinary practices are able to deliver veterinary services in line with Covid-safe requirements so x-rays and eye screening can go ahead. However, during the England national lockdown, CHS is only able to process online submissions to the Hip and Elbow Schemes.

Eye Scheme 

In England, under the new guidance for the national lockdown, group screening cannot take place. In Scotland, NI, and Wales (after the firebreak lockdown) group screenings can go ahead but Panellists must adhere to additional requirements to work in a Covid-safe manner.
Some CHS Eye Panellists may be able to offer eye screenings as long as government guidance on working safely, practice polices, and any local restrictions are adhered to.

We are asking all animal owners and breeders to respect their vets’ clinical and professional judgement and be patient during this time. The list of eye panellists offering testing can be found at: www.bva.co.uk/canine-health-schemes/eye-scheme/find-an-eye-panellist/

Hip and Elbow Dysplasia Schemes

As the CHS processing team is based in London, during the England national lockdown, processing and scoring of hip and elbow submissions will be as follows:

Online submissions:

• Hip and elbow submissions can be made by a veterinary surgeon via the CHS online portal
• The CHS team can process and score online submissions, however, online scoring is slower than in-person scoring, and this means there will be reduced capacity for scoring during the lockdown
• Unfortunately, this will further impact turnaround times and both BVA and The Kennel Club ask for your patience

Postal submissions:

• CHS cannot score postal submissions during the national lockdown in England
• CHS can process postal submissions, ready for them to be allocated to an in-person scoring session after the national lockdown. Unfortunately, this will impact turnaround times, which CHS are unable to estimate until the office reopens
• CHS is asking veterinary practices to assist by not sending postal submissions during lockdown as there is already a significant backlog of submissions that are unable to be scored until the offices reopen. Consequently vets are advised to hold on to submissions if at all possible

Anyone presenting dogs for hip or elbow x-Ray for submission to the Canine Health Schemes at this current time is advised to confirm that their vet is able to submit these via the online portal.

Turnaround times

Due to the uncertainty caused by the national lockdown in England, the CHS team are currently not able to provide accurate turnaround times. The team is working hard to process and score online submissions in order of date received and is unable to fast-track any submissions.

BVA and the KC is asking all owners and breeders to please respect the CHS team and their vets’ clinical and professional judgement and to be patient during this time.

Payment

CHS is unable to take payment until the submission is received, so please wait for at least two weeks before calling to make payment.

To make a payment by card for postal submissions, please call the office on 020 7908 6380 (please note that this line is for payments only).

When calling please provide the following information: Date of radiography; Kennel Club/microchip number; name and address of the veterinary practice.

Contacting CHS

For all non-payment related enquiries, please email chs@bva.co.uk and if possible include the dog’s Kennel Club or microchip number, date of radiography, and the name and address of your vet practice. The team will get back to you as soon as possible.

The BVA, Kennel Club and CHS teams thank you for your patience and understanding in these exceptional circumstances.

For the latest guidance and advice on Covid-19, please visit the BVA coronavirus information hub: www.bva.co.uk/coronavirus/. If you have any questions or concerns relating to canine health and welfare, please email health@thekennelclub.org.uk

ENDS

[xxx.20]

5 November 2020

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Notes to Editors

The Kennel Club is the largest organisation in the UK devoted to dog health, welfare and training. Its objective is to ensure that dogs live healthy, happy lives with responsible owners.

BVA and the Kennel Club (KC) work in partnership to provide a number of health screening programmes – the Canine Health Schemes. The Canine Health Schemes enable breeders to screen for a range of inherited diseases so they can make informed decisions as to whether those dogs should be included in breeding programmes. For more information on all of the Canine Health Schemes visit www.bva.co.uk/Canine-Health-Schemes/

BVA is the largest membership community for the veterinary profession in the UK. We represent the views of over 18,000 vets and vet students on animal health and welfare, and veterinary policy issues to government, parliamentarians and key influencers in the UK and EU.

We are all affected by this unprecedented situation but we wanted to let you know what is happening with the club.

Our Championship show was one of the first shows to be cancelled way back in March  and we had hoped to reschedule it in conjunction with a General Championship Show Society later this year but this will not happen.  

We had also hoped that the Joint Breed Clubs Championship Show would still be able to go ahead at Paignton but again we were disappointed.  Once we knew that neither show would go ahead we made the decision not to try and reschedule either show this year because of all the uncertainties and logistical problems to be faced. 

However, the positive news is that KC has confirmed we can reschedule both shows next year, as well as hold our 2021 scheduled Championship show.  As advice is constantly changing regarding COVID-19 we will continue to monitor Kennel Club and Government advice and will obviously be directed by this.

In the meantime, as a little light relief, please join in on the website our 

Irish Setter Fun in the Sun 2020 Photo Competition

This will run until the end of August and the gallery will be updated on a regular basis.

Wherever you are we hope you, your family and friends, including all four footed ones, are keeping safe.

Meg Webb

Chairman

We are sending this email below on behalf of the BVA. 

“In light of the COVID-19 pandemic Canine Health Schemes wanted to update you on how this will affect your Hip and Elbow Dysplasia submissions and Eye Examinations. 

Following recent government advice, we have taken a number of steps to protect the health and safety of our staff including making the move to work from home.  We remain contactable by phone (020 7908 6380) or email (chs@bva.co.uk) but have been experiencing higher call volumes so if you aren’t able reach us by phone please send us an email and we will get back to you as soon as we can. 

As we are working from home it will take a little longer for Hip and Elbow Dysplasia submissions that have been sent by post to be received and processed, so please bear this in mind if you are calling for an update on your submission. 

To protect the health and safety of our scrutineers we have asked them not to travel into our London office to attend upcoming scoring and grading sessions.  This means there will be a short delay in getting Hip and Elbow results back to your veterinary practice.  We are currently looking at alternative options for future scoring and grading sessions and will update you once we have more information. 

Many veterinary practices will be operating at a reduced capacity as they also take steps to protect the health of their staff.  This may mean they are unable to provide a radiography service for Hip and Elbow Dysplasia submissions at this time, so please be prepared to reschedule radiographs for later in the year if necessary.

 Likewise, many of our Eye Panellists are taking precautions to protect their health and yours, so are currently unable to offer eye examinations or attend group-testing days.  We are frequently updating the March and April group eye testing sessions on our website so please check to see if sessions in your area are still going ahead. 

We apologise for any inconvenience these changes may cause and appreciate your understanding during this time.

Our SEISC AGM scheduled for 5th April has been postponed indefinitely.

Hoping that you all stay safe and well in these difficult times.

As you know we keep Championship/Open Breed Club plus Open Gundog diaries on the website. We are in the current climate,  trying to keep on top of cancellations on both these diaries for your information. If you are aware of any show cancellation not being reported by us please get in touch at Show Cancellations

A useful link on Facebook called  Show Updates & Cancellations covering all general Open Shows can be accessed by clicking on group title. 

The Judging List on the website has now been updated for January 2020 together with revised questionnaire:-

Joint Irish Setter Club’s Judging List Jan 2020 

Joint Irish Setter Club’s Judging Questionnaire Jan 2020

Entry Forms & schedules are now available for download on the website. Online entry to follow shortly.

SEISC Show Diary

SOUTH OF ENGLAND IRISH SETTER CLUB

The Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday 5th April at 11am At Zeals Village Hall Warminster, Zeals Wiltshire BA12 6NY

Items for the AGENDA of the Annual General Meeting must be received, in writing, BY THE SECRETARY no later than 42 days before the AGM (1st March 2020)

THE SECRETARY must receive nominations for the elections of Principal Officers and Committee members in writing, no later than 5th December 2019.

All nominees for Officers must have been Committee members for the preceding 12 months; all nominees for committee must have been members for the preceding 2 years. All nominees must be proposed and seconded by those who have been fully paid up members for the preceding year. The written approval of nominees must be given. A short CV (which may be edited) would be appreciated from all nominees to be circulated with the voting papers.

During the year the secretary, Wendy King, resigned and Meg Webb took up the post of acting secretary. She is willing to continue in this role in the short term until a new secretary is elected, and who must have served on the committee for 12 months.

Officers: Secretary vacant The following committee members are standing down in accordance with the rules:

Tony Drinkwater, Jean Meekings, Julie Nicholls and Margaret Stubbs and offer themselves for re election.

Gillian Kennedy-Sloane was co opted during the year and stands for election.

There are 3 vacancies for committee.

ALL NOMINATIONS TO: Mrs M Webb, 27 Old Road, Addelstone, Surrey KT15 1EW Voting papers will be circulated in time for them to be returned to the scrutineer two calendar months before the AGM The results will be notified to members when the Agenda for the AGM is circulated.

From The Committee November 2019

Apologies but this event has been postponed