Online Notification

Notifications About Veterinary Surgeons

This form allows the Veterinary Surgeons Board of South Australia to gather as much information as possible about the incident and relevant circumstances. It is important that you provide as much information as possible and sign the declaration.

The Veterinary Surgeons Board of South Australia (the ‘VSBSA’) administers the Veterinary Practice Act 2003 (the ‘VP Act’). One of the roles of the VSBSA is to regulate the professional conduct and competence of veterinary surgeons, in order to maintain a high standard of service for the community.

Please note that the VSBSA has no power under the VP Act to assess notifications relating to professional fees or charges for veterinary medicines or products.

Please also note that the VSBSA has no power under the VP Act to order veterinary surgeons to pay compensation to any party.

The steps involved in processing and investigating a notification are as follows:

  1. The Registrar of the VSBSA (the ‘Registrar’) will consider whether the notification raises concerns with respect to the conduct or competence of a veterinary surgeon.
  1. The Registrar will confirm receipt of the notification and seek further information from you, if required.
  1. The Registrar will provide a copy of the notification to the veterinary surgeon and ask the veterinary surgeon to respond to the matters raised therein. If other veterinary surgeons are involved in the matter, the Registrar will request relevant information from those veterinary surgeons. Copies of patient records will also be requested.
  1. You may be contacted by the VSBSA staff to provide further information or relevant documentation.
  1. If there is proper cause for disciplinary action against the veterinary surgeon:

the matter may be resolved with the veterinary surgeon (for example, the veterinary surgeon may enter into an undertaking with the VSBSA to do a course of continuing education); or

the Registrar may lay a complaint before the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (‘SACAT’) alleging that the veterinary surgeon is guilty of unprofessional conduct.

  1. If a complaint is laid by the Registrar before SACAT, you will be notified and may be asked to attend a hearing to give evidence.
  1. If SACAT determines that the veterinary surgeon is guilty of unprofessional conduct, sanctions may be imposed under the VP Act, ranging from censure to disqualification from registration.

Unprofessional conduct is defined in the VP Act to include:

  • improper or unethical conduct in relation to professional practice;
  • incompetence or negligence in relation to the provision of veterinary treatment;
  • a contravention of or failure to comply with –
    • (i) a provision of the Act; or
    • (ii) a code of conduct or professional standards prepared or endorsed by the Board under the Act; and
  • conduct that constitutes an offence punishable by imprisonment for one year or more under some other Act or law.

Due to the confidentiality provision of the Act, the VSBSA will not be able to disclose to you information about the progress of assessment of a notification, details of and reasons for the outcome of assessment, information about any subsequent investigation into the matter or the details or contents of any disciplinary action taken against a veterinary surgeon. However, if conditions are imposed on a veterinary surgeon’s registration or a veterinary surgeon is removed from the register(s), that information can be disclosed as a matter of public record.

If you are aggrieved by the conduct of a veterinary surgeon, you have the right, pursuant to section 62(1)(c) of the VP Act, to personally lay a complaint before SACAT setting out matters that are alleged to constitute grounds for disciplinary action against a veterinary surgeon. If you lay a disciplinary complaint against a veterinary surgeon before SACAT, SACAT will inquire into the subject matter of your complaint unless it is considered to be frivolous or vexatious. A disciplinary hearing would be held at which you will be required to present evidence in support of your complaint. 

Information about lodging a professional disciplinary application (‘complaint’) to SACAT is available at https://www.sacat.sa.gov.au/applications-and-hearings/how-to-apply-to-sacat.

The VSBSA will only use and disclose personal information about you for the purpose of assessing and conducting an investigation into the matters raised by the notification, unless consent has been obtained from you to use the information for other purposes.

I have read the Notifications about Veterinary Surgeons information provided above *

All fields are required.

Person making the notification

Name *
Owner of animal: *
Address *
Telephone Number: *
Email: *
You must complete all required fields marked with an asterisk '*'

Person who presented the animal to the veterinary surgeon

Are you the person who presented this animal to the veterinary surgeon? *

Person's details

Name
Address
Telephone
Email
You must complete all required fields marked with an asterisk '*'

About the animal

Name *
Age *
Sex *
Type of animal (dog, cat, bird etc): *
Breed: *
Markings:
Colour: *
You must complete all required fields marked with an asterisk '*'

About the veterinary surgeon(s)

Name of veterinary surgeon(s): *
Name of clinic/hospital: *
Address *
Date(s) on which the incident occured: *

If another veterinary surgeon was involved in the subsequent care of my animal, I give permission for that veterinary surgeon to comment on the case, and provide clinical records to the Board.

Name of second veterinary surgeon:
Clinic/hospital name
Your Signature
Please type out full name
Date

Incident details

Please outline the basis of the notification below including all relevant facts in chronological order.
Supporting Documents (Eg. Photos)
Maximum file size: 5 MB
Up to 5 attachments, up to 5MB each. JPEG, JPG, PNG, Word doc and PDF only.
You must complete all required fields marked with an asterisk '*'

Declaration

I understand that a copy of this notification form will be sent to the veterinary surgeon(s). I give permission for the release of clinical records relating to the animal to the Board.

Please enter full name *
Date *

Working to ensure those in the profession achieve and maintain high professional standards of competence and conduct in their provision of veterinary treatment.

Correspondence Policy

We recommend using our postal address if your correspondence is sensitive and/or includes hard copy or confidential attachments (such as photos or documents). Please ensure you include a return postal address.

Our approach
When we perform our work, we aim to be fair, impartial, consistent, respectful, courteous.

How you can help us
To allow us to perform our work effectively and efficiently, we expect that you will familiarise yourself with our correspondence policy, give us accurate and complete information, treat us with respect and courtesy.

We aim to respond to correspondence, where required, within 20 working days of receipt.

Sometimes the matters raised in correspondence are complex and require detailed investigation in which case our response time will be longer.

There may be occasions where the issues you raise are outside our responsibilities. In this case we will refer you to the appropriate organisation or government department/agency. We encourage you to check to see if your issue is within our jurisdiction before you correspond with us. For example, if your enquiry relates to the ability of a veterinary surgeon to obtain, possess, prescribe or dispense Schedule 4 drugs, please direct your enquiry to the Office of the Chief Pharmacist: SAPharmacy@health.sa.gov.au. If your enquiry relates to the ability of a veterinary surgeon to obtain, possess, prescribe or dispense Schedule 8 drugs, please direct your enquiry to SA Health: HealthDrugsofDependenceUnit@sa.gov.au

We do not provide legal advice or personal advisory services to members of the community, veterinary services providers or veterinary surgeons.

We will only respond to items where we are the primary recipient. We will not respond to correspondence where we have been included as a carbon copy.

We will delete unsolicited advertisements without response.

We will not respond to correspondence containing offensive language or content.

We will forward any correspondence containing threatening content or advocating illegal activities to South Australia Police.

Your correspondence, once received, will become an official record of the Veterinary Surgeons Board of South Australia.