Hi, good evening, everyone. Thanks for coming to listen to my latest rant on RU 5 Star on medicine storage. Pam asked me a while back about coming and talking to you all about the changes we've made to risk-based assessments.
And even I couldn't rant for an hour on risk-based assessments. So we tweaked it slightly and added the bit about the extra storage, which is what most retailers do fall down on, and the reason that they get, Deficiencies on their inspection. So what we're gonna go through.
Quick overview here for you. I'm gonna have a quick chat about the 2017 inspections reviews, how many inspections we've done, what deficiencies. I'll explain a little bit about what our deficiencies and what types we have.
And then I'll go through the changes to the risk-based scoring system, which we've implemented as of this year. And then some info on the top 5 deficiencies and the tricks and tips I've got for you to comply. So you get A 5-star medicines storage inspection.
So the 2017 inspections, this is a big slide, but there's a lot going on on it, so I'll just go through it slowly. This is for the calendar year of 2017, and it's got all our retailers and vets on there. So the first category is the premise type.
Then we have the number of premises that was as of the end of January this year. So you can see we've got 2, just over 2500 vets, just over 700 merchants, pet stores following quite closely with just over 6.5, 6, sorry, 650.
I don't know where the 1000 came from. Saddlers falling behind with 264, and then we have 16 just equines. So that's just horse worm, there's no companion animals.
Where the next column there has a change of numbers. That's from this previous year, so 31st of the 1st 17. We've dropped, 19 on merchants, 25 on saddlers, etc.
The biggest drop there was the pet stores 77, mainly due to the change to the standard frontline, which went from NFA VPS down to GSL. Not everybody was selling. Wormers, they were just selling flea treatments.
They didn't need the registration. Then we've got the scheduled visits. So all in all, you can see there that, if you go right to the bottom, we did just over 1000 scheduled visits in 2017, but that's not all the inspectorate does.
We also inspect. Anybody that is involved with medicated feeds. So feed mills who manufacture it, feed stores who distribute it, and on-farm mixers who mix for their own use.
So it's not the whole inspectorate's done 1000 visits. We did a lot more, but I'm just talking about retailers today. So out of those, each one of those got an inspection, they got advice given, they got recommendations.
They also got deficiencies. These deficiencies then are used to assess your risk of a premise. It's like a A complicated way of showing our confidence in your premise.
So, the lower the risk, the less you see us. The higher the risk, we tend to turn up a lot more often. We have 3 categories of main categories of risks.
So I'll just go through those so you understand where I'm coming from before I start talking about the actual risk-based assessment. So the first one we've got is the other deficiencies. Some people call these minor.
We tend not to call them minor because people think minor, oh, it doesn't matter. They do matter. It's more than you needed for Just a recommendation or a bit of guidance, there is a problem here.
It needs fixing, so we call the others. So the other deficiencies can be classed as quite a lot of things, but these are what they generally fall into in. Main guidelines.
So, The possess no potential risk to human or animal health or the environment. They do not indicate a significant deviation from the requirements of the BMR. The VMR is the veterinary medicines regulations.
We love our three-letter acronyms. We talk about three-letter acronyms a lot. We've got BMR, we've got BMP, which is a veterinary medicinal product.
We've got the BMD, which is the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. We've even got the IIT, which is my department, which is the investigations and inspections team. So, sorry about the three letter acronyms, but they're gonna come up a lot.
So, indicate a significant deviation from theMR codes of practise or guidance cannot be classified as either critical or major, which are the other two types, because there is insufficient information to classify it. So, Could be anything from, you've missed the odd batch number to, you've not protected something very well from light or, you've got something that's out of date that's on the shelves. Not a huge major failing in the premise, but it is a problem.
It could turn into a problem. The next bracket up is our major deficiencies. These are non-critical, but are produced or have the potential to produce, which is a vital part of this major deficiency, because it might not have caused a problem, but there could be a problem on the horizon and it needs stopping, a possible risk to human or animal health and or the environment.
So it could be a potential with sheep dips contaminating the watercourse or Veterinary medicines being given out without proper guidance, so they're not used properly, which could cause a withdrawal period issue. Or there are major deviation from the requirements of the AMR. So that again, veterinary medicines regulations.
So that could be something like nobody's recorded any batch numbers for any POM VPS products. Or it could be a failure to carry out satisfactory procedures to ensure that products are manufactured, stored, or distributed in accordance with their specific requirements. For example, one of the premises I had quite a while back, had a member of staff that used to come in, unplug the fridge, unplug his mobile charger in for the day, and then put his, put the fridge back on when he left at the end of the day.
So when they took the readings in the morning, they thought it was fine. But when I came in during the day, his mobile's charging and the fridge is powerless. That is a major deficiency.
We have more though for major deficiencies. It could be a combination of 6 or other deficiencies, none of which on their own may be major, but when you put them together, they could represent a major deficiency. And the main one which most people get a major deficiency during their inspection is because at the previous inspection, and other deficiency was flagged and it's not been corrected.
So, Something like missing batch numbers was on your last report. We come back, you're still missing batch numbers or you're missing more, we'd escalate that to a major because that deficiency was not corrected at the previous one. So, we've done others, we've done majors.
The last category are the critical deficiencies. So these are the ones that hopefully we'll never ever talk about in person. These are deficiencies that have produced or have the potential to produce a significant risk to human or animal health or the environment.
Or a significant deviation from the requirements through negligence or intent. Or again, it's a major deficiency that was brought to the attention of the business. We were given instructions on how to, correct, correct this major deficiency, how to comply, and when we go back, it's still not been done, it escalates.
Critical deficiencies are our biggest deficiency. If we give a critical deficiency, we usually give you a notice as well. Tends to be an improvement notice.
These are Published on our website, they are usually a minimum of 14 days to comply. And if compliance with the notice is not achieved, we either go down the enforcement route with legal, so it ends up in court, or your approval to supply medicines is revoked. We don't want to get down that way.
It's Not the choice we'd have. We want compliance with the mine, the others, perhaps the odd major, but if we can get compliance and work with you guys at the first point of deficiency, we'll never get to the improvement notice. So I hope none of you have ever had one of those, but they're not a nice thing to receive, especially as it gets published.
So they're the deficiencies. That gives you a rough idea of what I'm talking about. I can't really list you a whole raft of what deficiency you'd be what because it, It would be infinite.
And I've put enough words on this screen already without adding that. So just to give you a rough idea of what we do with those deficiencies, this is the old system. This is what we were doing in 2017.
So we have four categories of premise, 4 Names for them at the end. So we had good, acceptable, unacceptable, and poor. To get a good rating, you had to have up to and including 6 other deficiencies.
To get the acceptable, more than 6, but up to and including 3 majors. Now, 6 deficients, others make 1 major. So that's how we worked it up into 2.
You could have 18 others or 3 majors there are a combination. Unacceptable, more than 3 majors, up to including 5, and 4, more than 5, and or any critical. 4 categories and I'll It wasn't the greatest because if you'd spent a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of effort getting your premise, Everything right, and we came in and said, that is brilliant.
You've got no deficiencies, no corrective actions, fabulous, you get good. If we went down the road to your neighbours and said, you've got a couple of out of dates on your shelf, you've missed a couple of batch numbers, you've got a couple of deficiencies, they also get good. We didn't like that, but we had no way of pulling out data that showed who was completely complying.
Now, in hindsight, this would have been a great thing when things like the I the people were going to Europe to be able to show compliance. This is what we tend, up until recently was giving to people like IRA. And this is our 2017, the whole of the calendar year findings.
So Great for the equine people, they got 100% good, which is fabulous. Next, after those are the companion animal SQPs, 99.2% good.
Saddlers next at 96%, merchants at 92.9%, and vet's following up with 73.8%.
There is a bit of a codicil there for the vets. Vet practises haven't been inspected for as long as retailers have. They've also got a lot more products and a lot more complications.
So it tends to be things like CD records, antibiotics. There's a lot more records being done out on farm as well as in the practise. There's a lot more problems they can have that goes wrong.
So although great for the the SQPs to be able to look and say, we're in the 90s, you're in the 70s, I'd give it a few more years before we could directly compare them. But what is great is we had nobody, no SQP retailers in poor, and we only had a couple in unacceptable. The merchants ones, both got notices because they had unlicensed products.
And the saddlers, I can't remember actually, but it wasn't unlicensed products. I think it was SQP coverage issue. So they did get notices they're in the unacceptable category.
So that's the old system. It works. It's not great, but it did work.
Apologies if you heard the dog bark in the background. I'm sorry about that. And there he goes again.
So while I go and shut the dog up, panel panel question one. Sorry, I'm just laughing about the dog. Right, question question one, Paul, question one.
I will launch the pole. Deficiencies have been brought to the attention of the business on previous occasions but have not been resolved, are considered to be what type of non-conformance? Good practise recommendation, other deficiency, major deficiency or critical deficiency.
So deficiencies have been brought to the attention of the business previously, but not been resolved, are they? Good practise recommendation, other deficiency, major deficiency, or critical deficiency? I'll give you a few more minutes while Jackie continues to discipline the dog.
Every if everyone wants to vote, and also, can I just remind people while this is going on, that if anybody hasn't put their SQP number into the question box, then please, can you, name an SQP number because we want to make sure you all get your points. Or if you're not an SQP, if you could just tell us you're not an SQP, so we're not searching for your SQP number. OK, everybody's voted now.
That's lovely. I shall share the result with you, Jackie. The dog's gone quiet for now.
OK, so we've got 100% think that it's major deficiency. Oh, you're all 100% fabulous. That's brilliant.
That's perfect. Oh, I do like it when people listen. That's great.
So, yeah, a major deficiency is. That one we've just described was the other deficiencies being escalated because of they weren't corrected at a previous inspection. So, we shall go on a little bit more to inspections, classification change.
Basically, you've listened to the old system. That's what happened in 2017 and previously. What we're doing now from April is changing to a numerical assessment compliance, which sounds very technical, but really what it means is we're going.
Category 1 is like a 1-star system. You get the, that's the bottom and 5 is best. So we're going for the star system, you know, a bit like your hotels, the more stars on the wall when you go in, the more chance you've got of the mint on your pillow, but we're not giving mint.
But 5-star system is the best. So our new top category is the category 5. The old system we had 4, we had good, acceptable, unacceptable, poor.
Now we've got 5. And that is purely to catch all you fabulous premises out there that have got no deficiencies whatsoever. We might have recommended things, we might have updated you on news or told you a little bit about changes to products, but that's not a deficiency.
So this is what we're really going for is people get 5 category. And to make it easier for us, instead of talking about one minor or other becomes 6 of those becomes a major with points scored. So at every premise we go to, we'll add up the points at the end and it gives us a definitive where you are in that band as well.
So, It's not a precise science. For you guys, you'll just get told, what category you're in, but it does help when we're trying to show what's going on with compliance for us. So why are we doing this?
Well, we want to remove any anomalies in the current system. We don't like it and you don't like being lumped in the good section with these guys that have got 2 or 3 non-conformances. You want to be in the section of your own with the perfect people.
It allows better assessment of inspections for us, and we've got better data we can work with. It also shows Over time, when we've got this system up and running fully and we've got some data. The improvements a lot easier because we've got 5 categories, we can see the spread better than we could in 4.
And like I was saying, the perfect people, it highlights the best premises, and we really want to shout from the rooftops how many perfect premises we've got. You spend a lot of time and energy and effort putting in the right paperwork, doing the right prescribing, talking to farmers, horse owners, pet owners that really don't want to talk to you. They just want the product to go.
But you guys are out there being not abused, but muttered at about asking stupid questions, and we want to be able to say it's worth it because we've got all these fabulous five-star premises. So what does it mean for you? Well, actually, not much on the day to day.
Level. It's not really gonna change your inspection interval. But it's going to give us a better indication of how compliant your business is and how you compare to others, and we get more useful data.
So as we come in to do your inspection, it will mean very little to change. It means we do a little bit of maths and we'll give you A rough idea within a couple of months of when we come back. So we might tell you, oh, we'll be back in 4 years, we'll be back in 3 years.
It's not on that day. I'm not that organised. But It will help us in the long run and I don't know what's going to happen in the future, what with changes to regulations and things like that.
But having data that can show how fabulously compliant PO VPS system is, is only going to be a good thing. So, I've waffled a bit more, so I shall give you one more slide and then we'll do a question. So I'm giving Pam a heads up that there's a question coming.
So this is what we're doing for the maximum inspection intervals. This is the magic table. So, first column, you've got your 0 deficiencies, you want to 6, or more than 6 others.
Up to 3 majors, more than 33 or more majors, plus 1 or more minor, and then your 5 majors. Second columnary compliance category, so 54321. If you're old enough, you can sing that, but I don't think most of you will be.
And that's your inspection points on the 3rd column. The only other bit I've got to explain here is We've got AM which is agricultural merchant. You've got two columns.
AM star and AM. This is for us to be able to factor in any additional risks. Vets and AM stars are Retailers that have got fridges and or dips.
Those are the two big problems. Potentials because of dipping certificates and because vaccines, fridge products need a lot more management. So an AM, the middle of the three columns, is a merchant that just does ambient products and no dips.
And then the final column, you've got AS, AJ, AC, so saddlers, just equine and companion animals. The two differences in the merchants doesn't really come in until you get down to category 3. So a compliant merchant, a category 3 is 36 months.
If he has no dips and no vaccines, he's 45 months. But that's what we're going to be working to. So at the moment, if you're a compliant merchant, you're on 48 months.
In 2017, you were also on 48 months. So that gives you a bit of background on what's going on there. And so we'll have a question and we'll, I'll stop talking about risk-based systems.
Right, thank you, Jackie. The dog's quiet now. Don't.
So the launch the next question for you. So the next question is the new risk-based scoring system allows the VMD to what? Is it to identify improvements in compliance more effectively?
Is it to reduce anomymaly anomalies can be anomalies in the system? Is it to give accurate data for premises with no deficiencies, or is it all of the above? Like I said before, just pick your answer, and those of you who are SQPs, please make sure you've got, we've had a couple of people join a little bit late.
Can you please make sure, which is great, welcome, we're pleased to see you. But if you can please make sure if you're an SQP that you've given me your name and SQP number if you want your points for this webinar. OK.
So got a couple, just one more, ah, we, we've all voted now, that's great. So this is amazing, Jackie. We've got 100% again.
Oh wow. All of the above. Oh, brilliant.
I was just gonna say it's not A, is it? No. We've all gone to D.
Oh, you guys are brilliant. Sorry, I keep saying guys, but it's my generic term for SQPs because that's another 3 letter acronym. I'm obsessed with them.
It really is terrible. Yeah, so sorry if anybody's getting upset because I'm saying, guys, I'll try not to, but it's just one of my horrible little phrases. So that is brilliant.
We've got 100%. We've got 3 more questions. I wonder if we can.
Great history here and get through a full deck of 100%, that'd be fabulous. So there you are, you've had a very, very potted history on inspections. Risk-based assessment.
So, you know more about deficiencies than you probably ever need to. But what's it mean for you? Well, this is what we found in 2017 in SQP retailers.
These are the top five non-conformances. So Start at the top, we've got vaccine fridge temperature records. 228, I think it was.
Yeah, agricultural merchants were inspected in 2017. 87 of those had a problem with the fridges. That's actually double what it was in 2016.
I don't know why it's doubled. I don't know why it's got more complicated, but people just have a blind spot with fridges. The next one there we've got is incomplete POM Records, prescription on your medicines, another three-letter acronym.
We had 36 of those, but we also had 11 that were reported as majors because they'd had a previous problem with keeping prescription medicine records. So some are no patch numbers, some are forgetting to take names and addresses on cash sales. Some are just a complete failure to have to realise that horse wormers are pum VPS products and need records.
There's a whole mix there. Next one down is your incomplete SQP involvement, 29, 6 of which on top of that was major. Number 4, we have segregation of out of date unusable BMPs, so that's veterinary medicinal products.
33 of those. So that's mainly out of dates on the shelves and behind the counter, so they're available to be sold, leaking products that have been left up there because you might be able to sell them cheaply, all that sort of thing. And the last one, number 5, 28, premises had incorrect storage.
Some of those are fridge products, not in the fridge. Some of those were products that really should be kept out of light, that are sat in a nice big window, or it could be products that have been stored on the side or upside down, where they're not supposed to actually, they must be stored upright because of the product shouldn't touch the plastic bung at the top of the bottle. So there's my 5.
So, of course, I'm going to run, start the rants now, and temperatures had to be started at number 1. So why do we do temperatures? Well, why?
Because the veterinary medicines regulation says medicines must be stored in accordance with the instructions on the marketing authorizations. So how do we do that? Well, you store them appropriately.
I want, if it says protect from light, protect from light. If it stores, says store upright, keep them the right way up. If there's a specific temperature range on there, and most of your ambient products will have a temperature on there.
It could be stored below 30, stored below 25, but they usually are on there. Or more importantly, fridge vaccines between 2 and 8. So we need temperatures.
So how are you gonna show us that you've kept it right by monitoring and recording your temperatures? And where do we need those, wherever the medicines are stored? We tend to focus, focus a lot on the fridges because the bridges are the problem.
If you've got an additional store. Backsto that you keep some of your medicines in, which is, not Part of the main shop, so it's not got the heating system in the same. Pop a thermometer in there and just keep an eye on it.
It'll probably never be a problem until the depths of winter. We don't like medicines going less than 5 degrees. 5 degrees, you can start getting problems.
So if you have a Some sort of storage area that has the potential of getting too hot or too cold, have a thermometer and keep a note of that. It'll be the best thing you can do if there's ever another one of those winters that we've had. So fridge temperatures, what are we looking for?
Well, we're looking for a daily recording of a Max and a min. And then you reset the thermometer. Why that is complicated, I have no idea.
But if I had a pound for every time I've had to show somebody how to reset their thermometer, I couldn't retire, but I could have a really, really good night out. And it, I just don't know why it's so complicated because the thermometers tend to get easier, not more complicated. The old-fashioned mercury ones, and I know they're not mercury, so liquid column.
With a pain to read because people used to read the liquid and not the black floating bars, or the black floaty bar would get stuck. They were a pain. The electronic ones are easy because if it says 4.6, it's 4.6.
But people have such a problem with them. So I've got a couple of pictures coming up. I'll go through what to look for and where you've, you are looking for your temperatures.
What else do we need? Well, if there is a Range that says, oh, today I've been up to 10 degrees and down to 3.6.
Just pop us a note next to it, why it went up to 10 degrees. It could be something as mundane as you've had a big delivery of stock. So you had the fridge on for 10 minutes while you played vaccine Tetris, trying to get it all in the fridge.
It could be, you've done a stocktake. You took everything out of the fridge for 10 minutes, cleaned the fridge and put it back. One word is plenty.
Do not write me an essay. Nobody wants to write an essay, because if I ask you to write an essay, you won't do it. If I Have you a system with you putting in ST for stocktake, C for cleaning, D for delivery?
That's plenty. It, it just shows that, you know why there's an excursion out of the 2 to 8 range, and it was a supervised or managed excursion. It didn't affect the product.
And the last one on there is If you Have one person that does the fridge. Don't assume that they're going to be there forever. People have days off, people go on holidays, maternity, move jobs.
Again, I've lost count of how many times I've been into. Retailers and, oh, so and so does it. Oh, yeah, she's gone on maternity two weeks ago and everybody assumes that somebody else is doing it.
It's not a lot of work to just have a quick glance at the records and a quick glance at the thermometer. And, oh, nobody's done it. I better do it.
It's better 3 if you look at it and only 1 actually writes it down, then everybody assumed everybody else has done it. We have a lot of deficiencies because the fridge temperatures stopped 4 weeks ago, 4 months ago. I had one recently that stopped in October 2017 because that's when the person left and everybody assumed somebody else was doing it, even though the record was stuck on the side of the bridge.
So yeah, please don't assume that someone else has done it. So to give you a rough idea of what I'm talking about, here's the average thermometer that I see. Stole the picture from Amazon, so that's why it's not a great picture.
But they're the standard electronic maxim min. With a wire and a little white sort of jelly bean type probe on the end. The pro goes in the fridge, the thermometer, you can either stick to the side of the fridge or put in the fridge as well.
And away you go. These actually have two sets of recording. So there's the room and the fridge.
So there's an actual thermometer inside the big box, and there's one at the end of the wire. So the bits I need you to look at, I'm gonna highlight in red. So, first one there is the probe at the end.
That is a sensitive little machine. It's a bit too sensitive, actually. If you have one of these back at the your shop, tomorrow go in and hold it between your index finger and your thumb for 3 seconds.
And then wait about 1015 seconds and watch the thermometer. It will jump about 34 degrees depending on how hot your hands are. So somebody just accidentally putting their hand against it or brushing their hand against it will take your thermometer outside the 2 to 8 range.
So placing, where you place that is quite important. The next one I need you to look at is the top button there. That's the max men button.
This is the only button you'll ever need to press. You press it once, you get maxim min. That appears over here on this side.
I haven't got it on the picture, but the top will say max when you press it once. And then if you press the maximum button again, in the bottom left-hand corner there of that. Just next to the two, you'll get the word min.
That tells you which one's which. Press it once, write it down, press it again, write it down. Then this is the magic bit to reset.
Press the maximin button and hold it till it beeps twice. It'll beep immediately when you press it, but keep it depressed until it beeps a second time. That clears your max min.
If you don't clear your max mint and you've had a big delivery, that 10 degrees will carry on forevermore. And on paper, your products look like they've been kept at 10 degrees for a long period of time and not the 5 minutes that it happened. So always reset after you've done it.
So the magic button, top right, maximin, hold it, double bape. The last one I'll just point out here is this one that says room here. That is the middle button.
So at the moment, it says probe on your middle button. It might say room fridge or in or out. You press that to swap between the thermometer that's inside the box and the thermometer that's at the end of the wire.
Should be fairly obvious which one's which because one will be up at about 18 degrees and one should be down at about 6. But if in doubt, just press the middle button. Now, not everybody's got this type, but this theory works exactly the same way.
So here's a couple more types. That you might recognise. The one on the right, I see a lot.
The one on the left, I see, mainly in vets practises, but I do see them occasionally. Exactly the same again. There's the magic maximin button.
Next to it on the blue one, we have in and out, which is the same thing as room and fridge. The one on the right has got room and fridge. The nice big one on the left, you can see the maxim min at the top right and top left-hand corner.
Both of these work the same. Press max, write it down, press maxim min again, write it down. Press and hold till the double beep.
So easy. But it's so complicated when one person leaves and nobody else knows what they're doing. So that's one type.
The other type I'm seeing quite a lot of, recently, mainly because, again, I'm saying, I'm gonna say a retailer, sorry, or the retailers do exist. Amazon, have been doing a deal on these at the moment, and you can buy two of these for between 10 to 12 pounds. These are just one unit.
There's no wire, there's nothing to get caught up in your fridge door or anything like that. Everything's inside the box. A lot of people prefer these because all three numbers are displayed at the same time, so there's no extra buttons to press.
So your big number there on the left is current temperature, and then you've got top right max, bottom right min. So you just write the two small numbers down and then press the big button at the bottom that says CLR clear. No double beep, it's just one press.
A lot of people are going for these because you get 2 for about the same price as one of the other ones. So you've got a spare in the cupboard or you can cover, your medicine store as well as your fridge. But they're a little bit more user-friendly because they're not, not quite as complicated.
And the last type I'm seeing a lot more of now is these big ones. These are actually designed for Greenhouses, but they work really well in fridges. They don't mind being laying flat.
And they're very, very user-friendly for people who are not great at squinting at small screens. So those numbers are about just over 1 inch high, so about 3 centimetres high for your metric people. So much easier to see.
You don't even have to open the fridge door to read it. This has a little two buttons on the side, which I've shown you a picture on the right-hand side there. There's the bottom one's centigrade and Fahrenheit, the top one's the clear button.
So you record the top, you record the bottom number, and then you just press the clear button on the side. If you have one of these in your shop, this is another one you can go and have an experiment with. The very bottom of the picture on the left, you can just see some little sort of vent grids.
Some, some manufacturers have them on the side. Inside there is where the probe is. It's actually in the box, but it is in there.
If you just pick up the box and blow, now, I'm not talking a hot breath, just a, a big sigh or something or a that sort of blow, against that, you can make that thermometer jump anything up to 10 degrees. They're very sensitive. They're very good, but they are very sensitive.
So how do we stop your your hands or your breath or anything else causing a problem? Well, we talk, we put everything in what we call a thermal brake. It's a very posh word.
For put it in a box. It sounds daft, but it is, there is science behind this. So thermometers record the air temperature in the fridge, but you're not selling air, you're selling medicines.
You're prescribing medicines, you're supplying medicines. The air doesn't count. We want to know what the medicines are doing.
So how are we going to find out how the medicines are, what temperature they're being stored, how they're being looked after. The easiest way to do that is get the thermometer to mimic the medicine. So we create similar conditions.
So all I'm doing is putting the probe or the actual thermometer in a box to try and mimic packaging. If you think about it, Every vaccine that you see in a fridge isn't just sat there, it's in a bottle. So it's in quite a thick plastic bottle.
Then there'll be a package leaflet around it or, you know, the data sheet. There could be, a valve in a plastic bag or some other bits that attached to it, but it's still padding around, it's insulating, and then you'll have the cardboard box. So if warm air gets into the fridge when you open the door, it's going to get through the cardboard, get through the data sheet, any of the plastic packaging that's in there, the plastic bottle and then affect the medicine.
That's 4, anything up to 4 layers it's got to get through. Where your probe or your thermometer is touching the air directly. So it, it spikes every time you open the door where the medicine temperature doesn't.
So we create similar conditions. The big thermometer there. The best thing you can do with that is bob it into one of those sandwich boxes, you know, the lock and locks, sort of new Tupperware tubs.
You can still see through it, but it stops any effects of hands or breath on it. The ones previously, they fit quite nicely into, that one fits great into the boxes that you get with your business cards in. And a lot of people will put the probes from these into some sort of little pot or bottle.
In vet's practises, we tend to use the dispensing bottles, the little brown ones, and it works a trait. If you want to be really, really scientific and mimic a liquid in your fridge, The best thing I've found for putting inside that little bottle is the, Obstetric gel or lubricant that you get. Everybody's got a doubt of lambing time in the stores.
If you have a broken bottle of that, use a bit of that. It's great. It's inert.
It doesn't freeze, and if it, you knock the bottle over, you've got a minute before it spills out the top before it. So you can put it back up. Of course, you put lots of tape over the top, stop it spilling.
But create some sort of thermal break. That way, when you open the door, it's not gonna spike. So, what's that do, this container.
It reduces the spikes, it reduces the effects of staff, hands, breath, what's this bit of wire here, it's in the way, that sort of thing. And it gives you a more accurate reading of what's happening to your medicines, not the air in the fridge, your medicines. A lot of places in winter have the heating cranked up because the staff are freezing, and every time you open the door, your ankles get very cold because the cold air floods out.
If the cold air floods out and it's hitting your ankles, the warm air is coming in at the top. So don't have your medicine, your probe at the top or at the bottom. Stick it in the middle.
Don't put it on the, in the fridge door or put it on the back plate. Middle shelf middle fridge is ideal because that's the, that's. Not gonna get any weird extremes for 10 seconds.
It's a lot better. So thermal brakes are the best thing you can do. It'll save you a lot of faffing about because you keep going above 8 or below 2.
Put it in the right place, put it in a pot, your life's gonna be a lot better and you're gonna get compliance. So, here's question. Here's a nice little picture.
Sorry, I'm jumping ahead of myself. This is the actual gold star thermometer. You can't get these at the moment, unfortunately, because the manufacturer who makes them in France has sold out once I started telling people about them.
That is the one from earlier with the built-in thermal brake. That's just a pot of propylene glycol. So if you see anything like that, or you can mimic something like that, that would be fabulous.
So now I will do question three. Sorry, Pam. No problem, just making sure I'm awake.
So here's what's so keen for another 100%, you see. Right, everybody concentrate 100%. Thermal brakes are recommended onto thermometer probes because.
Keeps the thermometer clean. It reduces the effect of opening the fridge on the readings. It protects the probe from damage or reduces the frequency of temperature recording.
So why would you use a thermal brake? Is it to keep the thermometer clean? Is it to reduce the effect of opening the fridge door?
Is it to protect the probe from damage, or is it to reduce the frequency of temperature recording? We just need, I think somebody hasn't voted yet or nearly everybody's voted, just give you another few seconds. Remember, you need to vote to get your SQP points.
Just another couple of seconds. Yes, OK, I can now tell you. Oh, now hang on.
Almost. We've got, nobody thought it was to keep the thermometer clean. Nobody thought it protected the pope from damage, but 17% thought it reduced the frequency of temperature recording, and 83% thought it reduces the effect of opening the fridge on the readings.
83% are brilliant. I can see where I threw the in about the frequency as a nasty, horrible sort of catch you out. .
What it does will reduce the number of excursions, but I still need you to check it every day. So you'll still do the same amount of temperature recording with the thermal brake. So, that's why I did it on purpose just to see if I could catch any of you out.
And I'm really sorry I did, but yeah, it is to reduce the effect of opening the, the fridge door because you won't get those spikes. So back to that little list from earlier. We've done fridge temperatures, so let's quickly go through the other bits and bobs before I run out of my hour because I've promised not to go over my hour like I did last time.
So, on to incomplete prescription-only medicines. So what am I looking for? I have colourful little phrases for things, and I call the requirements for medicines records, the famous 5, because there's 5 of them.
So I want to know what you've supplied. So what's the product? When did you supply it?
Date? How many did you supply, the quantity? So who did you supply it, the customer, and the batch number?
That's my 5. So what, when, how many to who and batch? If you put expiry date down as well, which isn't a legal requirement, but you get a huge gold star from me and lots of brownie points.
We always recommend it. We're never going to tell you not to put it down. It is brilliant because there's two reasons.
It shows us as inspectors that you have product that's in date and you supplied it in date. So there's none of these out of date products going, being sold off. It's also the only other thing that the farmer needs for his medicine records or the horse owner needs for the passport that they will come back and ask you for.
Farmers are traditionally good at using the product, bin in the box, burning the bottle, and then a couple of months later, giving you a ring because they've got an inspection tomorrow and they need to fill in the book. If you've written it down at the time, you don't have to go delving into your records from your wholesaler to try and find your expiry date. It does help, but the main one I'm looking for is to show that the product that you supplied was legal because it was in before it's used by date.
The only other bit for incomplete prescription-only records, which a lot of problems we have on sheep dips are because of these two. Certificate must be recorded at supply. People say, oh, I, I know I've got your certificate somewhere.
So, because I know it's somewhere in the shop, I supplied him, but they can't find it anymore. So, If you have got a computer system, stick it into the computer system under his account details. Most computer systems have a memo field or Notes field on each customer account.
You can bob in his herd number, what ear tags he takes, whether he's got his pest control. Certificate, all that sort of thing. Bob the sheep dip in there, because once it's in there, you'll keep it forever.
But if you can get a copy of a certificate and keep it in a file, that is even better because there's no arguments then of what dip number it says. We do get the odd dip number written down wrong. We do get the odd person giving the wrong dip number altogether.
And we do get more and more at the moment, people coming in with Somebody else's dip number. So they come in saying, oh, I'm using my cousins, my brothers, my uncles, next door neighbours. The problem with that is the person who you record as the dip number is legally responsible for that dipping.
They have to be present at the time of dip. A lot of these guys we've found over the years had no idea their dip number was being used. So I would, if somebody comes in and says, oh, I'm using so and so's dip number.
Get, have a check with that person because they probably, it's news to them, unfortunately. If they want to use, be responsible for the neighbor's dip, that's fine, but just double-check, you don't want to be supplying stuff to people that they shouldn't have it. So that's why I put sheep dips in there.
So next one, very, very quickly because I had to, I thought I'd catch you on the hop. You nearly caught me on the hop there, Jackie. Right.
Which of these are the legal recording requirements for all POM VPS supplies? Some more nice little acronyms for you. When, who to, what, batch, how many?
When what batch expiry who to? What batch how many who to SQP? What when SQP expiry batch.
Now you know why I put it in there. That was difficult to read. So lovely.
Easy to read that on the screen, I think they're listening to me say it, so can you read it and see what you think is the right option of those four choices. Like I said before, don't worry if you're not quite sure. You still get the points as long as you, as long as you've just vote as you answer the question.
That's the important thing. Answer the question. And then you should get your Atra CPD points.
Just gonna give you another couple of seconds cause we haven't quite got everybody yet. Another couple of seconds. OK, everybody's voted, and you'll be thrilled to know, Jackie, that what, when, sorry, not what, when, who to, what, batch, how many is 100%.
0, fabulous. Oh, that is good because I've made that as complicated and as Confusing as I possibly could. I could catch on.
Not that, and it was funny to listen to you read, but, I thought if I threw in expiries and SQPs in there, I'd catch somebody out. But no, that's amazing that everybody got my famous 5. Perfect.
Oh, I'm so chuffed. So, right. Now I sat here grinning, and now I'm going to shout at you all about S SQP involvement.
So sorry about this, but, it is the number 3 on the list. There are 2 things an SQP has to do. You can't delegate your prescribing process.
You've got to do the prescribing. You've got to check that the farmer wants, what the farmer wants or what the horse owner wants or what the pet owner wants. It's the right product for the right job.
He knows how to use it. They're not going to do anything stupid, like put it on the guinea pigs or, sell it on the internet. Anything like that, you've got to be able to do.
Now, you can do that in person, you can stand at the counter and talk to them. You can have a chat on the phone, you can do it electronically over the internet, but It must be done by an SQP, not and, and I'll find me typo. There's always one typo.
What's the other bit you've got to do? You must be physically present at the time of allocation. You can't be omnipotent and be somewhere in the building, somewhere in the town, somewhere in the county.
You've got to be there because even if you don't actually touch the product and another member of staff hands it over next year, if they pick up the wrong thing, you've got to be capable of intervening. No, I didn't mean that one. I meant the other product and make sure that they take the right details.
They record the batch number, name and address, that sort of thing. So you've got to be physically there. Now, we have, some very enterprising SQPs that think CCTV means they're physically there, it doesn't.
You can't see detail on CCTV and you can't intervene. We've had people ask about FaceTime. You name it, we've had it, but you've got to be physically there.
Now I know it's not easy to be there 24/7 or when the shops open, but it's just training your staff to say, sorry, I can't supply you, the SQP's got to do it. Now, there are days where you know you are gonna be off. You've got to go to a SQP CPD event or something like that.
If you tell your customers that you're going to be away and they ring you up saying, I am coming down tomorrow, I can't get down today, but I need product X. That's fine. You can prescribe it over the phone.
You can allocate it. Bob a delivery note on it. Put it through the system, put a copy of the delivery note, pop it in a bag under the counter to be collected by Mr.
Whoever. You've done your prescribing, you've effectively placed it into, delivery mode now. It's been prescribed, it's been allocated.
Whether you pop it in the post or it sits under the counter and he comes and gets it later. It's the same thing. So there are ways around it, but I need you to be able to put that delivery note on that says you did it, just to cover it.
So if we turn up and there's no SQP on, but I just see somebody getting a nice bottle of sheet wormer over the counter, I need to see that you did that the day before. The other one that we have problems with an SQPs is know your limits. It's amazing how few people know what SQP category they are when they've not got the full.
Or SQP for merchants or ESQP for Saddlers or CSQP. There are quite a few people out there that are L's, K's, J's and G's. But because they work in merchants with an RSQP, they have the full range of medicines.
In the store and think they can still supply them. So if you're a G, for example, don't supply companion animal products. I know they're on the shelf.
I know other people can do it, and then it's very tempting to say, oh, well, it's only cats and dogs, but you didn't pass the module, so. It's the equivalent of, it's a bad analogy, but I've got a driving licence, but I can't drive an HGV. All right, it's still got a gear stick and a steering wheel and a brake and a Clutch pedal, but I wouldn't even attempt it because I'm not legal.
So why sell products that you're not licenced for? And we do catch the odd SQP that does it. So I flashed through quickly and didn't realise before I'd done this, but your last question's coming up, it's question 5.
Right, this one's be a bit easier to read, I think. Which, what categories of products can a QK SQP supply? Farm and equine, equine and companion, Farm and companion, or farm equine and companion.
I must admit the letters always get me very confused, I have to say. I have great ways of remembering what the letter was some sort of acronym or something of you for. Right, everybody wants to vote.
They they're thinking about this a lot more, Jackie. So farm and equine, equine and companion, farm and companion or farm equine and companion. This is for a KSQP QK KSQP.
As I say, don't worry if you're not sure. Just vote because you've got to make sure to get your points. And while you're doing this voting, we're coming near the end now, I think.
So if any of you've got any questions for Jackie, you can go, go ahead and type them into the question box and I will ask Jackie on your behalf at the end. Right, we've almost got, got all of you voting. I'm just going to give you a few more seconds.
And just make your mind up. Yeah, we've definitely got a bit of a spread here. It's a nightmare.
It's really difficult, especially when you get to the G's and K's and I know. I mean R and C, you know, that's, that's obvious, isn't it? But when you get onto some of these others, OK, everybody's voted, so I'm going to end this poll.
I share the results, I'm gonna tell you, Jackie that yeah, we've got a really good spread. Well, nobody thought it was equine and companion. Good, cause that's an ESQP.
Yeah. 17% thought it was farm equine and companion. That is a GSQP.
33% thought it was farm and companion. That is a KSQP. They were right, but 50% thought it was farm and equine.
Sorry, far an equine is the KSQP yeah. Well, you've read that out twice. No, I said, sorry, nobody said equine and companion.
Nobody said, yeah, equine and companion. Nobody said, 17% said D. All right, fine equine and companion, that's an RSQP.
Yeah. 33% said C. Yeah, that's the one we want.
That's that's the right answer. 50% said A. By an equine is G, yeah, but it's terribly confusing, isn't it?
It's a nightmare. And all right, we are, most of us, I don't think anybody who's logged in today will be a K or a GSQP, but you might have a member of staff that is, and you need to know that they. If they're the only SQP that week that moved the Horse wormers because the KSQP can't sell them.
You know, a lot of people don't realise that if you've got farm, you can't do everything. No. It is confusing.
So, last slide and then I'll shut up. The last one on that list was segregation of out of date unusables. So we have another great urban myth in the, SQP retailers' world that out of date can't be sold.
No, they can't be supplied. They can't be used. They can't be given away.
It's an offence to supply and medicine that's past its expiry date. Now supply is irrelevant of whether you get money or not. If you take it home and use it on your own stock, it's still supplied to you.
If you give it away, it's still supplied. So Wait, keep an eye on your stock, keep checking once a month, look for short-dated, highlight the short-dated to the other members of staff, but may, if you are selling them for a, a discount, putting a deal on for somebody, still do your prescribing. I still needed to know that the right product's going to the right person at the right amount.
He's not going to buy 3 years' worth because it's on at half price because then he's going to use it out of date. We need to know he's going to use it all before that, the expiry date's up. Now, I have a few merchants that are very good at this.
They have little sneaky ways of highlighting short-dated product. So when it's within 6 months, they'll put a little black dot in the top right-hand corner of the box. They know, but the customer doesn't.
And then if it comes to 3 months, they'll put another dot next to it, so it's double dotted. And that way they know the, if customers who I'm worming tomorrow, they can do a bit of a deal with him because he's going to use the product. Doesn't, don't put big flag signs on saying.
Reduced half price, you're not allowed to put deals on medicines because that attracts a customer to come and say, oh, I want that one cause it's discounted. That one might not be the right product for him. That one might not even do what he wants to do.
It might be a glucoside and he wants to work. So, Offers, sale, discount, the lead customers. Your Got a harder job to prescribe when he's already made his mind up that he wants the discounted products.
So don't put a big sign on, but knowing yourselves in your heads, what's short dated and then you, once you've had the chat and decided, you can give him that option. And the other one is remove any OODs, my other last three three-letter acronym, out of date. From your shelves, because if it's on the shelves and it's with the salable stock, then sooner or later it's going to get supplied.
People have busy days, people are people. You have people helping Saturday staff, people like that, they don't always check the dates. It's easily done.
So if it's not there, it's not gonna cause a temptation. Put it in some sort of clearly segregated area. It might be a box under the counter, a box in the back, somewhere like that.
And then keep a record. Most people have a little book or a, a notepad or something like that that they write down. Product 5 litres of sheep wormer, batch expiry date, and then they'll put a note if they managed to, if they returned it to the manufacturers or they had to get it put into the controlled waste.
Two reasons for keeping a record. First of all, you need to be batch traceable for all your PO VPS products. So if we have a recall, touch wood, we never do, but if we do, And you have had 10 bottles of this product in, you've got 2 left on the shelf, so we need to find 8.
I've only got sales for 7. If I know that one bottle was leaking and you've put it into the, segregation area, and there's a record of it and it went and got disposed last week, then we've done our full traceability. Without that record, I don't know where that last bottle went.
The other reason is from new business owners out there, that is an expense business expense, which your accountant likes to know business expenses because they can be written off. And lastly, it's very handy for us to know that somebody's actually managing your stock. So, out of dates on shelves, I spend a lot of time taking out dates off, and they're usually things like, Bottles of glucose, calcium, magnesium.
Small packs in large merchants that tend to do a lot of large farms, the smallholder packs, the 50 mLs, 0.8 of the litres. Just because it's been sat there, a while doesn't mean it's going to be automatically be out of date.
You've got some products that have got a huge shelf life of 4 years on them, but other products are quite short-dated when they come in. So whoever's putting the Products on the shelf, just get them to do work. It only takes a minute.
I know it's a pain if you've got 10 products to put on because that's 10 minutes extra, but it's worth doing, just checking the. Expiry dates that are already on there and doing first expire first out, just rearrange your stock, because not everything comes in that's automatically going to be a longer shelf life than the one you've got on the shelf. A lot of people just automatically shoved to the back and it causes them problems.
So that's my little hints and tips and, rants and bugbears about the top 5 non-conformances. Hopefully, some of those you'll be able to take away. And hopefully use and get Zero deficiencies on your next inspection, so you're a 5-star premise.
So anybody got any questions?