In this context, specific refers to particular requirements that have to be met when dealing with the different categories of clientele: for instance, stables, kennels, portable x-ray equipment, ultrasonography, practice laboratory and so on. On the management side, practices will be expected to meet certain standards in relation to clinical records, maintenance of physical structures and equipment, procedures for waste disposal, compliance with safety and welfare legislation and so forth.

Obviously, for many practices accreditation will call for increases in both capital and recurrent costs. Will the returns adequately reward the investment?

A member of the Interim Board was at pains to reassure the writer that the Board is taking a very measured approach to its task and that the monetary implications of each and every recommendation it adopts are thoroughly debated and assessed. They are taking the longer view and they plan to proceed at an aerobic pace which will enable virtually all practices to aspire to an accredited status of some kind. In other words, the intent is not to focus on the upper end of the scale - on the emergence of a handful of super-duper veterinary hospitals to the detriment of the vast majority of practices; rather it is to encourage improvement in the facilities provided by a wide range of "average" practices. The Board subscribes to the Lemass dictum that a rising tide lifts all boats; with your help it hopes to vindicate that opinion in a practical and highly visible manner.

At this juncture the Board wishes it to be known that it welcomes constructive input from interested colleagues and that it will give due consideration to any fresh ideas that are brought to its attention. It wants to lay the best possible foundation for the development and growth of practice facilities that will give tangible expression to the professionalism that the public are entitled to expect - and we provide.

Further editorial comment on the importance of the task being addressed by the Interim Board is not warranted at this time. On the other hand, it may not be inappropriate to devote a paragraph or two to consideration of some matters that are engaging the attention of colleagues in other jurisdictions and which, ultimately, may have a bearing in attitudes to accreditation.

Immediately, one thinks of the current crisis in agriculture and the implications for large animal practitioners. The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is forcing the livestock industry to reshape itself, a costly and painful process that will have serious consequences for the veterinarians that serve it. There is general agreement that there is an irreversible trend towards fewer, larger livestock units, with a concomitant reduction in the volume of the routine work that has been the mainstay of the profession for many years. It is forecast that large animal practice will have to adapt to the changing circumstances, in all probability by more specialisation and by greater involvement in the provision and supervision of whole-herd programmes to maintain the health and productivity of the enlarged herd. In such circumstances it would scarcely be necessary to plead the case for accreditation.

If the drift towards specialisation gains momentum, there is a possibility that the profession might acquire a two-tier configuration with large animal practices composed of a mix of generalists engaged locally in routine work and peripatetic specialists who use the practice as a base camp. Should that eventuate, one can envisage a case being made for incorporation of the practice and, possibly, the appointment of a non-veterinary business manager to ensure that the practice can hold its own against the business acumen and administrative procedures of the hard-nosed (corporate?) client.

This is not an entirely fanciful notion. In the USA, a segment of the veterinary profession has taken the corporate option which allows the creation of a company that can own the veterinary premises and run the business side of the practice. In the UK, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has accepted advice of Counsel that it has no power to prevent its members following suit. It would seem to be only a matter of time...