Vet shortage?

[hedgehogger1]

Been trying to get my pet into to see the vet. I'd registered pets previously but they've never actually needed to go. Contacted the vets and they said they had no record of me and weren't accepting new patients. Called about 15 other vets and none are accepting new patients. Not sure what to do :(

Could you use the PDSA? Or look for mobile vets who do home visits.

Do you have a PDSA near you?

(Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals)

I think it is where so many people got new pets over lockdown and all of a sudden the demand for vets skyrocketted and there just aren't enough appointments to go round. Really frustrating.

PDSA will only help if you receive certain benefits which may or may not be relevant for you

Veterinary practice looks totally different to even a decade ago. Very few men apply now as for the effort and responsibility, the money isn't great.

A fair few drop out shortly after qualifying as it isn't how they imagined and a number work in non practice settings such as research. Add in the women that have time out for children and it leaves a massive hole in the profession.

I've found this too after we moved. Just managed to get on with one but it's a 20 min drive away. I wondered if it might be Brexit as well as the factors PP say, a huge amount of the small animal vets I've met are Spanish/Eastern European

Have you tried this site

findavet.rcvs.org.uk/home/

The vets we use is so short of vets that they’ve had to temporarily close 2 of their 3 branches .

I think there's something like a third less vets coming into the country. Workload is huge and it's a nightmare to find a vet to fill a job vacancy. There's not enough vet nurses either. We find we get even less vet nurses applying for work. The practices are so busy they don't want to train any so the cycle goes on. You can only imagine what it's like to work as one. Crippling staff shortages and huge numbers of people wanting appointments. It's crazy

I have heard this and feel incredibly lucky that I can pretty much always get an appointment on the day at my local practice. It must be really stressful! Do you live near a city? We have a big vet hospital in town - I wonder if somewhere like that might be easier to get into.

Live relatively rural but near a couple of towns. Contacted just about everyone within a 30 minute drive in every direction. Pet seems happy enough but there's clearly something wrong physically. Not sure what I'm meant to do!

You might have to go further afield. Could you phone any in more rural areas or where population density is lower?

Also, I think some Pets At Home have veterinary clinics in store.

Tried three pets at home Instore vets

The vets I use are waiting list only now, I'm an ex vet nurse, the vet asked me last time if I wanted to go back into it, I laughed! It's a big problem

You might have to travel to another area.

Our vets is not accepting new customers but will see a pet in an emergency?

Could you get your name onto a waiting list somewhere then travel out of area in the meantime?

A friend of mine is a receptionist for the Pets at Home Vets, and yes, serious shortage of vets. And vet nurses. And receptionists. Not helped by people treating them like absolute shit because they require payment for treatment.

This is a huge problem, we’ve been understaffed for about two years…

There’s always been a high dropout rate (people leaving within 5 years of qualifying) because of things like poor work life balance, not flexible, relatively poorly paid, being a punching bag for the general public…
Brexit definitely affected it
Covid meant more pets
This increased the workload of the existing vets and many of them left the profession due to stress/burnout

If a pet is registered with us we have a responsibility to look after its health and welfare, so we have to limit how many pets are registered to how many we can safely care for. We’ve already closed a branch and stopped all the ‘non essential’ things like puppy/kitten wellness checks, nail clipping, nurse clinics, lunch breaks….to allow us to focus on the pets that need urgent medical attention.

Every day I have more work than I can do in a day. Rarely a day goes by when I don’t get some form of criticism or complaint from an owner that we weren’t quick enough/convenient enough.

One of my closest friends is a very experienced small animal vet, and she is experiencing all the issues stated above when trying to employ vets.

Brexit means fewer EU vets are interested in the hassle of applying for permission to live & work in the U.K.

Small animal veterinary medicine has become overwhelmingly female, and women vets want sensible work / life balance, family friendly hours etc etc as in any other profession. Previous generations of male vets were generally more willing to put up with ridiculous hours & pressures.

The drop-out rate of new graduates is very high. Most small animal practices are now run by corporates controlled by private equity investors. Idealistic young vets who chose the profession because they wanted to care for animals find that the reality of the job is revenue & profit targets and pressure to sell, sell, sell. They quickly become so disillusioned they quit.

I would argue that 'lunch breaks' does not come into non-essential! That just adds to loss of critical staff through illness or burnout.

I'd actually rather have a good vet than a good doctor, if push came to shove. You guys didn't get included in all the adulation of key workers, but you really are amazing. Thank you.

There aren't many small private practises around now. Most are owned by large companies, certainly in our area. Being a vet isn't an easy job, its difficult to get onto the uni courses, many requiring AAB minimum, and you have to be able to afford a 5(?)+ Year uni course plus sometimes a 1 year unpaid internship. You are occasionally abused by owners of pets and undervalued by the large companies who employ you. Its relatively low paid compared to other medical professions and we have a Brexit and Covid staffing void.

@mbosnz

I would argue that 'lunch breaks' does not come into non-essential! That just adds to loss of critical staff through illness or burnout.

I'd actually rather have a good vet than a good doctor, if push came to shove. You guys didn't get included in all the adulation of key workers, but you really are amazing. Thank you.

Aw thanks :-)

I agree that lunch breaks are ideally not non essential, and it used to be like, once every couple of weeks we would have an emergency on top of our normal workload, and nobody would get lunch. Now it’s more days than not - we are fully booked every day weeks in advance.

It’s a hard one because I don’t see the solution, we can’t magic vets out of thin air, and the worse the understaffing gets, the more people get exhausted and leave the profession.

If there’s such demand, why is it still low paid? If they’re booked up weeks in advance surely the clinics are doing well?