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Written by Paul
Dr Paul Manktelow is a vet who’s worked for almost 20 years on the front line in some of the UK’s busiest veterinary hospitals. As Chief Vet in the Charity Sector, he leads a team of vets and nurses that treat thousands of pets every year. Paul also appears regularly in the media as a TV and radio presenter, writer, public speaker and podcast producer.
The government’s decision to reform the Veterinary Surgeons Act might sound like a technical legal issue, but it has real implications for every pet guardian in the UK.
This is the law that regulates veterinary surgeons and, in many ways, shapes how veterinary care is delivered behind the scenes. The problem is that it was written in 1966, and veterinary medicine has changed beyond recognition since then.
To put that into context, many people still hold a James Herriot image of the profession. A vet turning up with a bag, stitching a dog up on a kitchen table, then heading off to help on a farm. That was the world the legislation was built for.
Modern veterinary practice looks very different. Today we have advanced imaging, specialist referrals, complex surgery, long-term disease management, digital systems and multidisciplinary teams. Pets are also viewed differently. For many people, they are not simply animals in the home. They are family.
That is why reform is happening now.
A major catalyst was the CMA investigation into the veterinary sector, which concluded that the regulatory framework no longer reflects how veterinary care is delivered today. That does not mean the profession is broken. It means the system around it has not kept pace.
One of the biggest issues is that the current law regulates individual veterinary surgeons, but not veterinary businesses in the same way. That may have made sense in the 1960s, when most practices were owned and run by vets. Today, practices may be owned by corporates, charities, partnerships or other business models. Reform is asking whether regulation should reflect that modern reality.
The consultation is also looking at the wider veterinary team, particularly veterinary nurses. Nurses are highly trained, regulated professionals, but their title is not legally protected in the same way as veterinary surgeons. This matters not only for professional recognition, but for public understanding and trust. It also matters for how efficiently modern practice can run.
In an episode of The Consult Room Podcast, I explore this in more depth and explain why reform is not really about rewriting history. It is about bringing regulation closer to the world we are actually working in now.
That said, it is important to be realistic about what this reform will not do. It will not suddenly make veterinary care cheap. It will not solve inflation, staffing shortages or the cost of delivering advanced medicine. Better regulation may improve efficiency and clarity, but it is not a silver bullet for affordability.
That is why this conversation matters. Reform could improve how the profession is structured and understood. It could strengthen public confidence. It could support modern team-based care. But it sits within a much bigger system that still includes workforce pressures, rising expectations and the wider challenge of access to care.
If you want a clearer understanding of what is actually being proposed, and what it may mean in practice, this is exactly what I unpack in the podcast episode – check it out on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen by clicking below ⬇️
