In Practice Editorial Board

Clinical practice editorial board

Stephen Baines

Stephen Baines qualified from Cambridge in 1990, after which he took up an internship at North Carolina State University in the USA and a residency in small animal surgery at Liverpool. He then completed a PhD in tumour immunology at Cambridge followed by a period as clinical surgeon in small animal soft tissue surgery. He is currently a senior lecturer in small animal surgery and head of surgery at the Royal Veterinary College. He is a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons and an RCVS specialist in small animal surgery.

John Fishwick

John Fishwick qualified from Cambridge in 1985. He spent five years in mixed practice before moving to the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in 1990 where he worked in the college's farm animal practice. In 1997, he took up the position of head veterinarian to Almarai, then the world's largest dairy herd in Saudi Arabia with over 20,000 high-yielding cows on five farms. He returned to the RVC in 2003, where he is a senior lecturer in dairy herd medicine.

Aiden Foster

Aiden Foster qualified from Bristol in 1987 and worked in mixed general practice for several years before completeing a PhD for studies on allergic skin diseases in cats. He subsequently undertook a residency in veterinary dermatology and worked at Bristol for seven years lecturing on the same subject. He is currently a veterinary investigation officer at the AHVLA, based in Shrewsbury. He is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology. His particular interests include large animal dermatology, publishing and miscellaneous farmed species including camelids and deer.

Mark Hillyer

Mark Hillyer qualified from Bristol in 1987, where he remained to first work as an equine and farm animal clinician and subsequently completed a residency training programme in equine internal medicine and soft tissue surgery. After sometime as a lecturer at Bristol and on completion of a PhD for studies on equine abdominal disease he moved to Greenwood Ellis and Partners in Newmarket, providing a hospital-based referral service in equine internal medicine and soft tissue surgery. He is currently a partner at Newmarket Equine Hospital, where he provides a referral service in soft tissue surgery and internal medicine. He holds RCVS certificates in equine practice, equine soft tissue surgery and equine internal medicine and is also a diplomate of the European Colleges of Veterinary Surgeons and Equine Internal Medicine. He is a European Specialist in equine internal medicine and equine soft tissue surgery. He has been a member of the RCVS Equine Board and been both a regular examiner and adviser for the RCVS equine certificates and equine veterinary nursing EVN programme.

Hilary O'Dair

Hilary O'Dair qualified from the Royal Veterinary College in 1982. Since then, she has concentrated on small animal clinical work in practice. She has worked as a chief examiner for the RCVS certificate in small animal medicine and is a current adviser for the examination. She was also a member of the RCVS board on small animal medicine. She is a lifelong member of the Feline Advisory Bureau (FAB) and has been a member of the FAB committee for over 10 years. She currently works in first-opinion practice in a large multi-disciplinary small animal practice and also runs her own dermatology consultancy in Devon and Cornwall. She holds RCVS certificates in small animal dermatology and small animal medicine.

Jelena Ristić

Jelena Ristić qualified from the Royal Veterinary College in 1992. She spent six years in general practice, and subsequently undertook a residency in internal medicine at Cambridge. Since then, she has divided her time between clinical work, involving mainly internal medicine, relating both to first-opinion and referral cases, and clinical pathology. She has taught CPD courses for both vets and nurses and has also worked as an examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate veterinary courses and undergraduate training for nurses. She currently works part-time as a clinical pathologist for Axiom Veterinary Laboratories, specialising in internal medicine. She holds the RCVS certificates in small animal medicine and veterinary cardiology, and the RCVS diploma in small animal medicine.

Practice management advisory group

Nick Blayney

Nick Blayney qualified from Liverpool in 1980. He started his professional life in Herefordshire in mainly agricultural practice. After 10 years, he bought a practice in Warwickshire where he remains 20 years later as principal veterinary surgeon of a five-vet mixed practice. His main professional interests are in farm practice, especially herd health planning. During the past 20 years, he has also taken an interest in veterinary politics at a local level, as secretary and president of the Warwickshire Veterinary Club and also on a national level, as secretary of the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons. Within the BVA, he has served as a regional representative on council, as chairman of the Member Services Group and then as an officer, holding the office of president in 2007/08. He currently also represents the UK profession within the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe.

Rita Dingwall

Rita Dingwall is the group practice manager of Cinque Ports Veterinary Associates and Milbourn Equine, a seven-centre mixed practice based in Kent, that caters for most species and includes an orthopaedic referral centre. She is former president and regional organiser of the Veterinary Practice Managers Association, and was the VBJ practice manager of the year in 2008. She is a member of the RCVS board on communications.

Peter Gripper

Peter Gripper qualified from the Royal Veterinary College in 1980. He became a partner in a mixed practice in Somerset in 1983, where he worked for 22 years before forming Anval, a veterinary practice management company providing financial, management and business services to veterinary practices, where he is managing director. He was on the council of the British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) for six years, serving as sponsorship coordinator and editor of Cattle Practice, journal of the BCVA. He is a member of the examination board, an examiner for the certificate in veterinary practice management and is an external examiner for the veterinary nursing degree at Bristol.

Ewan McNeill

Ewan McNeill qualified from Glasgow in 1984. He worked in mixed practice for five years in the Midlands before settling in Nottingham where he owns a city centre practice. He has a keen interest in veterinary politics and has been involved in his local BVA division, serving as secretary, programme convenor, president and public relations officer. More recently, he has been heavily involved with the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons for which he was president in 2006/07. He has been a member of the Veterinary Benevolent Fund for the past 14 years. He has lectured on veterinary radiography at a veterinary nursing college and also occasionally teaches at the veterinary school in Nottingham. He is a part-time consultant for Anval. He holds the RCVS certificate in veterinary radiology.

Christine Shield

Christine Shield qualified from Edinburgh in 1983 and joined the PDSA Centre in Newcastle, where she worked for nearly four years. She set up her own small animal practice in the Tyne Valley in 1987 and ran the practice single-handed until 2004, when she sold it as a going concern in order to develop some of her other professional interests. She now works freelance, carrying out various short-term and part-time jobs within the profession. Building on her background in single-handed practice, her work currently includes clinical and management roles within a wide range of practice types. As well as keeping her hand in with locum work, she is a non-executive clinical director for Companion Care and office manager for the British Veterinary Hospitals Association. She has been involved in veterinary politics for more than 20 years, having been honorary secretary and then president of the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons and her local veterinary association. She serves on the councils of both the BVA and the RCVS.