You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

Veterinary staff are humans, and as a result errors are inevitable...but the profession is currently doing nothing to monitor what types of errors are occurring,  to investigate how frequently errors occur, and, even worse, it is doing little to put in place safer systems and procedures to protect veterinary patients.

All veterinarians could probably put up their hands and admit to having made at least one professional error during their clinical careers. This does not mean that they have been professionally negligent...it is simply a reflection of the fact that humans do make errors. Errors of judgment, errors due to lack of time, inadequate facilities or lack of knowledge. 

In a report conducted by the National Academy of Science Institute of Medicine in the US it was estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 human patients die every year as a result of medical errors, making medical error the 8th leading cause of death, and it has been estimated that if the same fatality rate occurred in the aviation  industry there would be 5 major crashes every day !

The veterinary profession should not be complacent about it's own record in this area simply because accurate statistical figures are not available. In one retrospective review of acute renal failure cases which occurred whilst patients were in a veterinary hospital the authors concluded that ALL the cases should have been predicted, and could probably have been prevented, because of known risk factors that the patients had, and/or because the procedures performed on the animals, or therapeutic agents administered to the animals (including general anaesthesia or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) were known to be associated with the risk of precipitating acute renal failure in patients with other known risk factors.

So, what can (and should ?) the veterinary profession be doing ? The first step is to attempt to identify and quantify the types of clinical errors that are being made in veterinary practices. This is a sensitive area, but Provet is prepared to act as an independent collator of information and guarantee the anonymity of persons prepared to submit details of errors that they know have been made in their practice. When sufficient cases have been reported Provet will publish the results for the benefit of the wider veterinary community.

Please support Provet's initiative in this area and send details of clinical errors to feedback@provet.co.uk 

Thank You.

Last updated : October 2013