After You Have Qualified

Continuing as an AMTRA RAMA including CPD and Annual fees

You will be included on the current calendar year’s AMTRA RAMA (SQP) Register – your inclusion is for the remainder of the year, not for a full 12 months. Since AMTRA operates on a year from January to December, then if you qualify in the summer you may only be on the Register for a couple of months before we start asking you for your fee for the following year (which we do in October).

In order to continue as an AMTRA RAMA, you must ensure AMTRA is paid the annual renewal fee each year. The renewal fee should be paid in October or November for the following calendar year. A late payment fee is due on payments received in December, and for payments received after 1 January a reinstatement fee is payable.

Some employers manage the payment of the annual fee on your behalf, but do check with your employer to make sure that this is the case, as it's your responsibility to ensure the fee is paid to AMTRA.

You must act in a professional manner including acting in accordance with the Veterinary Medicines Regulations and the Code of Practice issued under them by the Secretary of State. If the Code changes in a way which changes the obligations of RAMAs, AMTRA will provide an updated copy to all AMTRA RAMAs.

You must keep yourself up to date, including undertaking at least the minimum prescribed amount of Continuous Professional Development. It is important that you understand your CPD obligations once qualified: please read the document “Frequently asked questions about the AMTRA CPD scheme” enclosed with your training manual and available on the AMTRA website.

AMTRA operates on a two-year CPD period: the same period applies to everyone, with the same deadline regardless of when you qualify, but those who qualify part-way through the two years may be given a reduced target for the first CPD period. Once qualified, please make sure you understand what your CPD obligation is and the deadline for achieving it.

Keep AMTRA updated

Even though most RAMAs are supported by their employers, your qualification is personal to you, and AMTRA will write to you at your home address.

Please remember the importance of keeping AMTRA advised of any change in personal details (such as name change, for which we will need sight of documentary evidence) or if you move house – please do not expect your employer to do this for you. You can login to the AMTRA website (amtra.org.uk/Identity/Account/Login) and update your contact details at any time.

If you’ve provided an email address to us, then you will get extra information which we don’t always send in the post. If we have an email address for you, then we will rely on it from time to time, so please always make sure we have an up to date address for you, preferably a personal one which reaches you directly rather than a generic one for the store or practice.

Upgrades – adding extra modules

If your initial enrolment with AMTRA was for anything other than an all-species RAMA, you may subsequently decide to add one or more of the other species modules to your qualification. (Note that this is more expensive than enrolling for all the modules at the start.)

Like the initial enrolment, this is essentially a two-stage administrative process:

1. Enrol with AMTRA for the upgrade: Send us the application form (from the AMTRA website, reference A02) and fee. We'll send you the text of the additional modules for your training manual.

If you wish, you can book a supplementary training course with one of the training providers – remember that this is a separate process, and if you book a training course you must also both enrol with AMTRA for the upgrade, and book an exam with AMTRA.

2. Book the exam: Select an exam date from the list of exams, and then send us your exam booking form (from the AMTRA website).

Premises registration

RAMAs may only supply veterinary medicines for which they are qualified from registered premises – that is, a Veterinary Practice Premises (VPP) registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS); a retail pharmacy registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) or the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI); or, most commonly, premises approved as SQP Retailers' premises by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD).

Please note that if you are setting up a new SQP Retailers' premises, you must apply directly to the VMD's Inspections & Investigations Team with the appropriate payment. This does not happen automatically once you've passed your RAMA assessments and joined the AMTRA Register.

The premises must be approved before veterinary medicines can be obtained and supplied. The VMD aims to process applications within 10 working days and conduct the approval inspection within 30 days of the application being processed. The VMD's contact details are given below:

Tel. 01932 338475
Inspections & Investigations Team
Veterinary Medicines Directorate
Woodham Lane
New Haw
Addlestone
Surrey KT15 3LS

A copy of the VMD's SQP Retailers Premises application form is available from the AMTRA or VMD website.

Note that because some avian species are food-producing, currently any premises supplying them must be registered as category "AM", which carries VMD’s higher fee, though this may change in future Veterinary Medicines Regulations.