Having lost a 2 year old dog called Connie under circumstances whereby we felt we had to make a formal complaint to the RCVS, we have found the complaints process has no transparency, there is no reflection in the RCVS response on how the Veterinary Code of professional conduct might have been contravened, with much emphasis placed on what defines marginal negligence, which they do not act on. For the RCVS to continue to investigate a complaint the negligence has to be viewed so serious the outcome would lead to the professional being struck off. Only this level of negligence will trigger their on going investigation. Once the RCVS rule on this then the industry insurance body the Veterinary defense Society will charge the  owner to prove, using an expert witness, another vet, how negligence has taken place. At this point owners will feel helpless they may give up because they will struggle to find a vet to speak out against another vet openly and they may also have to find finance to support taking legal action if they want to pursue finding answers. There appears to be no objective independent body involved in the complaints process or an ombudsman to investigate a complaint transparently to give answers.  I have become more and more aware of harrowing recounts of professional action or inaction, which has cost owners the lives of their much loved pets with no course of redress to get full answers with recount after recount of the frustrations of the response from the RCVS and dismissive responses to evidence indicating serious misconduct. There is no process in place to make sure vets who routinely make poor judgments, contravene the Code of Professional Practice or show errors in knowledge are identified, supervised or retrained to make sure they do not continue to put patients at risk. The system as it stands seems to protect the professionals, even if they are weak practitioners and does not provide a transparent process to give clients answers and identify staff who may require support or training and where professionals continue to put patients at risk, then a discipline procedure. An independent assessment body considering complaints would be a robust starting point to make veterinary professionals  more accountable and provide a better service to the paying customer and not leave so many people, like us, without answers, which makes the loss of our pet and the grieving process so much harder. Any confidence and trust in a profession rests in knowing there is a decent process in place to investigate if a paying customer has a cause for complaint. Nothing like this truly exists for the veterinary profession.