Owners’ training weekend

DOZENS of young dog owners are to descend on Perthshire for a special training weekend.

The event, organised by the Young Kennel Club (YKC) and the Scottish Kennel Club (SKC), will allow youngsters to boost their canine training skills and try different activities.

It will be held at Errol Airfield from July 28-30.

The event is open to all YKC members and SKC junior members and will involve disciplines such as agility, heel work to music, obedience and handling.

YKC chairman Gerald King said: “Lifelong friendships are often formed during these training weekends and it gives our YKC members the chance to meet like-minded Scottish Kennel Club juniors as well as the opportunity to strengthen the bond between owner and dog.”

Any breed of dog can take part, providing it is fit and healthy and at least six months old.

However, for agility, flyball and heel work t o music training, dogs must be more than 12 months old for safety reasons.

Dr Andrew Thomson, who is currently a salaried GP at Brechin Health Centre and locum GP, is accused of deleting appointment slots despite being available to see patients.

He is further accused of making appointments for patients when it was not required in order to misrepresent his availability, inputting information into the system that wasn’t true.

The GP, who was employed at the Academy Medical Centre in Forfar at the time, is set to go before a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Hearing to answer the allegations.

Dr Thomson also serves on the Tayside Local Medical Committee (LMC), where he has been joint medical secretary since April 2011.

The Tayside LMC is the representative body for all general medical practitioners within the Tayside Health Board area. It is made up of elected representatives from the three divisions, which are Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross.

A statement on the upcoming hearing said that the alleged actions had taken place over a five-year period.

It said: “The tribunal will inquire into the allegation that, between September 1 2009 and December 31 2014, Dr Thomson deleted appointment slots from the BMJ Front Desk system used by Academy Medical Centre when he knew he was available to see patients during those appointment slots.

“It is also alleged that, on various dates, Dr Thomson created appointments or phone consultations on the system, for a number of patients, which were not required and he knew were not required. It is alleged he did

A SENIOR Tayside doctor has been accused of being “misleading and dishonest” amid allegations patient appointments were deleted.