Veterinary group pushes safety helmets for equine work

VetPartners gives hats and branded silks to practices

British veterinary group VetPartners has launched a campaign to get equine vets, nurses and horse handlers to wear safety helmets when working with horses.

The group, which counts Parklands as its first Northern Ireland practice, has now provided all of its UK equine practices with hard hats for team members to wear.

The company’s Hat Hair – Don’t Care safety campaign will also be see staff given training in hat safety.

VetPartners’ Carrie Goodbourn, below, said: “In taking those steps, we are aligning ourselves with leading, respected organisations like the British Horse Society, which have been active in advocating the wearing of hard hats for many years.

“Head injuries are sadly a high risk for vets and nurses in practices and they occur in all sorts of circumstances.

“People can be seriously hurt, and in some cases, suffer life-threatening injuries, so the health and safety of our colleagues has to be top of our agenda.

Hat manufacturer Charles Owen has provided vet practices with hats and silks branded with individual practice logos.

Anyone handling a horse at a VetPartners equine or mixed practice is encouraged to wear head protection, and vets are also urged to consider wearing head protection while working with stallions, undertaking hind limb nerve blocks and injecting horses of known or declared poor temperament.

VetPartners has 160 small animal, equine, mixed and production animal veterinary practices, with 6,000 employees working in about 500 sites.