VetPartners’ new Clinical Board Annual Report highlights power of international collaboration

International network: Rachel Dean believes sharing knowledge will deliver best outcomes and support teams

VETPARTNERS’ new Clinical Board Annual Report highlights how the strength of working together as one group across nine countries is enabling us to drive veterinary care forward.

By sharing knowledge, experience and innovation across our international network, we are better equipped to advance clinical standards, support our teams and deliver the very best outcomes for patients and clients alike.

Our Group Clinical Board is bringing colleagues together from across VetPartners to strengthen our clinical communities, advance patient care through focused quality improvement initiatives, and create greater opportunities to take part in meaningful clinical research.

Development of clinical communities

Formed of Clinical Board leaders from the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and France, the Group Clinical Board oversees the continued development of our clinical communities across the business and provide support to practice teams in every region.

A key priority is the ongoing delivery of group-wide quality improvement projects. This includes increasing the use of post-operative coding to help drive better surgical outcomes, alongside a strong focus on antibiotic stewardship — work that has already led to a 65% reduction in our usage since 2021.

Collaboration: Westway Vets Clinical Director Caroline Scobie, centre, who is part of the VetPartners Clinical Board team, shows the report to practice colleagues Christina Bailen Bolano, left, and Brooke Ferguson

Together, this collaborative approach ensures we continue progressing care, sharing expertise, and delivering the highest standards for our patients.

VetPartners Group Director of Clinical Research and Excellence in Practice Dr Rachel Dean said: “By working together and learning from one another, we can achieve bigger and better things that have a lasting impact on animal health.

“While each country can make a meaningful difference on its own, our true strength lies in coming together as one group — combining our expertise, sharing our clinical experience and supporting each other to drive even greater progress.

“Our clinical communities are growing all the time, and the Clinical Board Annual Report is a celebration of work we did across the group in 2025. We can look back on how far we have come in such a short period of time and how we are working together to make a difference to the animals we care for, our clients and each other.”

More than 6,000 colleagues are now involved in Clinical Board activities across VetPartners, underlining the strong appetite for VetPartners’ ethos of progressing care together.

The newly published 2025 Clinical Board Report shows progress in key areas, including:

• Conducting a range of quality improvement projects across species to support teams and maximise the care of our patients, looking at areas such as equine castration, post-operative use of antibiotics for equine surgeries, caesarean sections in cattle and vaginal prolapse in ewes.

• VetPartners has supported a number of practitioner-led projects, presented research at a variety of conferences and is running a selection of large clinical research projects, resulting in a number of publications.

  
  

Dr Dean added: “All meaningful change in clinical practice begins with a conversation. The more conversations we have across the whole group — focused on our patients and on shaping clinical practice that is fit for the future — the greater our ability to progress care.

Cross species: Farm vet Laura Pugh, who is Clinical Director of Damory Vets, holds the report that includes our excellence in farm vetting

“Our clinical communities create networks of people who share the same clinical interests, drive and passion to progress practice. They are united not only by a desire to develop themselves, but also to support and inspire others. We have colleagues working collaboratively across countries, exploring both our similarities and our differences, and learning from each other in the process.

“The report also highlights how our Group Quality Improvement work has grown significantly. It is all about examining how we practise today, deciding collectively how we want to evolve, and ensuring we are progressive, forward-thinking and ready for tomorrow.”

You can read the new Clinical Board Annual Report here: VetPartners Clinical Board Annual Report 2025

Article by Amanda Little, VetPartners PR and Communications Director. Email amanda.little@vetpartners.co.uk