Notification of providing private veterinary services

1. Familiarise yourself with the requirements of providing private veterinary services.
2. Fill out the form “Notification of providing private veterinary services” and the attachment “Account of activities and facilities” as fully as possible. Submit these by mail or e-mail to the registry of the Regional State Administrative Agency in whose operating area you have a permanent office. If you do not have a permanent office, submit the notification to the Regional State Administrative Agency in whose operating area you are mainly planning to offer veterinary services. Remember to fill in all the entries on the application and make sure you submit all the attachments at once.
3. If the Regional State Administrative Agency requests additional information, submit this information without delay.
4. The Regional State Administrative Agency will send you a notice when your notification has been registered. You can initiate operations already before receiving the notice.
5. Remember to notify the Regional State Administrative Agency also of substantial changes in the activities and of termination of activities. An e-mail notice of the latter is sufficient, as long as there is no uncertainty about the sender.

Your notification will be registered when it contains the necessary information. Therefore, an actual permit is not required nor granted.

However, in order to provide veterinary services, you must have appropriate facilities, tools and personnel required by the nature and scope of your activity. The provided veterinary services must be appropriate and comply with the practices of veterinary medicine. If you provide the veterinary services yourself, you must be a qualified veterinarian. If you set up a company or a similar establishment to provide veterinary services, you must employ a qualified veterinarian who is in charge of organising the veterinary services.

The Finnish Food Authority and the Regional State Administrative Agency have the right to inspect the activities, facilities, tools and documents, and this right applies also under certain conditions to the sanctity of the home. Should the inspection reveal that your activities are not in compliance with the legislation, the Finnish Food Authority may order you to remedy the shortcomings. If the instructions are not followed and the activities may cause a serious risk to the health and well-being of animals, the Finnish Food Authority may order the activities to be terminated until such time when the non-compliances and shortcomings have been remedied.