Tag Archives: RCVS

BARTA at the Emergency Services Show

BARTA and Resquip joined up once again to promote support for emergency responders at this years exhibition. Show organisers generously made provision for the team to showcase large animal rescue techniques with an extra space to demonstrate our life-size training mannequin horse and cow. This year’s BARTA team represented a variety of disciplines required to enable effective response to animal incidents including operational firefighters, large animal vet and small animal critical care specialist. We are so grateful for our wider team giving up their time to promote the good work that BARTA does for the community we represent. If you are an emergency responder, veterinary professional or involved in horse racing and eventing, check out opportunities to get involved through 2024. https://www.bartacic.org/training 2023 Emergency Services Show Highlights Video

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Collaborative Training

The Defence Animal Training Regiment (DATR), BARTA and Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) have held a joint training day looking at large animal response. Emergency responders face a variety of challenges during operational activity and their tactics always need to consider the presence of animals. The better prepared animal establishments and responders are ahead of a problem, the more effective they will both be if an emergency occurs. UK national guidance for the fire and rescue service prompts fire authorities to gather information about animal establishments, in order for responders to understand the complexities and hazards associated with an unwanted event at the location. The DATR delivers animal handling training for more than 400 personnel and role specific training for hundreds of Military Working Animals per year. The unit is a joint service establishment with serving personnel from several … Continue reading

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Milestone for BARTA – UK’s first Large Animal Rescue Instructor Course

UK wide standardisation of large animal rescue training for fire and rescue services took a step closer this month as the first BARTA Accredited Instructors course was delivered to firefighters from South Wales, Cheshire, Buckinghamshire, Derbyshire and Hertfordshire.  BARTA’s Jim Green reflected on the achievement, “In 2008 fire and rescue services began collaborating to develop standard training and protocols for large animal rescue. Since then almost all UK fire authorities have adopted large animal rescue response models.  Operational learning has taught us that incidents involving animals is a broader subject area and impacts many more responder groups than just firefighters. BARTA was established to provide coordination for this expanding initiative together with partners and stakeholders from the rescue, veterinary and welfare communities. Through collaboration we have further developed policy, training and guidance, building on those early training offerings and aligning … Continue reading

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BARTA Small Animal Trauma Guidelines Highly Commended by RCVS

The RCVS Knowledge Awards for Quality Improvement showcase the implementation of Quality Improvement techniques which drive improvement within the profession. The fifth RCVS Knowledge Awards focusing on QI were awarded in 2023. BARTA were recognised under the Highly Commended, Ones to Watch criteria, citing the provision of evidence-based guidelines and training for emergency first responders to provide pre-veterinary immediate care and developing a handover checklist to use when handing over to veterinary professionals. BARTA Director Jim Green thanks all of the contributors to this essential work. “Emergency responders frequently encounter animals in the course of their operational duties, many of whom, like their owners, are suffering trauma and distress. BARTA are working on a suite of materials to support emergency responders in providing lifesaving pre veterinary care to animals caught up in emergency or disaster. The first stage was to … Continue reading

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Moving forward collaboratively…

This week, BARTA brought together a variety of agencies and experts who deal with incidents involving animals, whether single animal focussed or wide scale community events affecting multiple people and animals. Jim Green, BARTA Director of Operations said, “This is the first time we have had such a diverse range of agencies discussing their organisational response to animal incidents. Understanding their priorities and exploring how we can support each other collaboratively will directly benefit people and animals. There are clear concerns that the animal component of human emergencies and animal specific issues will develop in response to emerging climate driven emergencies and we are right to be having conversations now about preparedness and resilience. BARTA are committed to encouraging and facilitating debate and seeking practical, evidence based solutions for our responders. I’d like to thank all the agencies who attended … Continue reading

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BARTA Working Groups Gather…

This month specialists from the veterinary and emergency services came together once again to agree best practice solutions to issues surrounding incidents involving animals. The large animal group focussed on lifting animals for rescue or medical suspension.  The type and availability of suitable lifting devices varies within rescue organisations and sometimes the most suitable solution may not come from within the organisation. Clear understanding of the problem is required, to make the right choices. Current practices were evaluated in order to support judgements for selection of device or method, based on informed situational awareness and the casualty centred rescue. Additionally, areas for development were identified and discussions had with equipment manufacturers around improvements that would promote safety or patient care. Next steps will be to create visual resources to help Team Leaders with training and decision making. National Operational Guidance … Continue reading

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We’ve been busy training!

It has been a busy start to 2022 for BARTA and the next few months do not seem to be any less packed! Our team have been working across the UK and in the first 3 months provided training to over 200 responders from the veterinary and emergency service communities. We’ve embedded our Incidents Involving Animals – Initial Level training into the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service online learning platform, therefore becoming the underpinning knowledge for all their operational personnel and forming a thread throughout subsequent training levels for large animal rescue. This year we have 75 newly trained fire and rescue service Large Animal Rescue Responders (AR2), many who will also experience our Livestock and Equine Handling course over the next few months. In March we welcomed 12 new Team Leaders (AR3) to our wider BARTA … Continue reading

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BARTA Community – Spotlight on our People

The BARTA community wouldn’t exist without the many dedicated people who contribute their time, skills and expertise across all species groups to help us fulfil our vision, inspiring excellence in animal response. With that in mind we want to shine a light on those individuals who have helped BARTA on their journey. Dr Chris Tufnell BSc(Hons) BVMS FRCVS What inspired you to get involved with BARTA? In my first few years in equine practice I was unlucky enough to be involved with several emergencies involving horses on the M3 and M4 motorways.  It was clear to me then that coordination between vets and rescuers, particularly the Fire Service, was crucial to maximise the chances of successful and safe outcomes for all involved.   I was lucky enough when based in the New Forest to attend the first ever course for vets run … Continue reading

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