A CASE against a distinguished West Dorset vet facing charges in relation to how she ran her practice has been concluded after she said she would be leaving the profession.

The Disciplinary Committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has agreed to accept undertakings from Philippa Ann Rodale who asked for her name to be removed the RCVS Register of Veterinary Surgeons and would not be applying to be put back on it.

The request from Ms Rodale, who until her retirement last week ran her business at Weatherbury Veterinary Clinic in Puddletown, came as the committee resumed a hearing into charges against her.

In a response to the committee, Ms Rodale, who it is said had a 'long and unblemished career' and was awarded an MBE in 2008 for outstanding services to veterinary medicine, declined to comment on the charges and did not admit to any of them.

She did agree to certain undertakings which prompted the committee to state that it would "not be in the public interest" to proceed with the case further due to the costs involved and the fact that Ms Rodale is no longer in practice.

The original charges related to Ms Rodale’s standards of practice – in relation to issues such as biosecurity, hygiene, in-patient facilities, drug storage and the disposal of hazardous waste, among other things – and also to a test for Intradermal Comparative Tuberculin. The charges relating to her standards of practice did not have complainants, as the College raised the matters itself; with respect to the Tuberculin test charge, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, as the relevant body, raised no objection to the proposed course of accepting undertakings.

The RCVS committee first met last month then adjourned to allow Ms Rodale time to submit formal responses to the charges against her and indicate whether she agreed with them.

Ms Rodale did not attend when the hearing resumed this week and the committee decided to continue in her absence, on the understanding she was fully aware of the hearing.

In accepting the undertakings, the committee felt that a contested hearing that could take up to seven days and involve several witnesses "would not be in the public interest". Furthermore, since the July hearing, Ms Rodale had retired and closed her practice, the RCVS said.

The committee also noted that there had been "no previous disciplinary findings against her, in what was otherwise a long and unblemished career".

Committee chairman Ian Green said: “The committee is satisfied that the undertakings offered by the respondent protect the welfare of animals since the respondent has now retired and is no longer in practice.

"It is also satisfied that the reputation of the profession is upheld since the undertakings offered go beyond any sanction which the committee could impose at the conclusion of a contested hearing, were any of the heads of charge to be found proved.

"It considers that it would not be proportionate or in the public interest for there to be a lengthy contested hearing.”

Ms Rodale announced to clients that she would be retiring last Friday after 30 years of practice.