BVA Welsh Dinner: a recent graduate's experience

On Tuesday 13th June, the scrub veterinary uniform was replaced by an evening dress for the BVA Welsh Dinner at the grand Cardiff City Hall. I was one of two lucky "recent new graduates" to be chosen to join AMs, vets, farmers, journalists and friends of the BVA in celebrating their achievements throughout the year.

There were some wonderful speeches by both Gudrun Ravetz, the BVA president, and  Lesley Griffiths, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment and Rural Affairs. I clapped particularly hard for the BVA on their "finalist" place in the 2017 Antibiotic Guardian Awards!

"In the political world we have no enemies"

Thereafter followed dinner, where I gained an insight into how our profession is viewed by the other professions on my table. We are an incredibly trusted profession and as one politician said to me "in the political world we have no enemies" (colleagues, the "Q word" on your on call shift is not included here as your eternal nemesis). When we start to discuss topics, we are listened to, but how often do we start the discussion? We are very good at discussing topics within our peer network or client education within the consulting room. However what I took from these discussions, is that we need to broaden our outreach more.

How to get involved with creating evidence based policy

Your local Assembly Members are approachable people, invite them to your practice, discuss brachycephalics, the importance of retaining our non-British vets post Brexit, discuss socialisation of puppies to avoid dangerous dogs, travelling circus animals, antimicrobial resistance, discuss whichever animal topic relates to you. By bringing these topics to their ears in an informal introductory way we can provide the "expert opinion". This will help to then produce evidence based policy, rather than finding policy driven evidence.

The importance of engagement

Overall I found the evening inspiring as to what we can achieve and it has reinforced how important engagement within the veterinary community is. I would like to thank the BVA for the invitation and encourage the hard work they are doing.