Tipperary-based vet Damien Corcoran has said that the current service being provided by vets is one that’s not going to be as easy to provide into the future as the shortage of vets hammers practices.

“As a profession, the service that our clients get is absolutely phenomenal and the vast majority of farmers understand that and appreciate that but some maybe take it a little bit for granted. I think some would be amazed if you said to them that the service they currently get may not be the case for ever.

“In as much as 100% of cases, a farmer will have a vet in their yard in an hour, day or night, Christmas Day or Sunday. I think that service going into the future is going to be harder and harder to provide as vets get older and less young vets enter the profession,” he said.

Recruitment

The challenge of recruiting and retaining vets, Corcoran maintained, is a three-legged issue.

Veterinary graduates, he said, are good workers, they’re not afraid of graft but hiring vets for large animal practices in Ireland is currently a hard sell.

“Young vets, probably from a professional development perspective, would like to go into more mixed animal practices where they can see a bit of both and from that position then they can make a decision what field they’d like to concentrate on.

“Quite rationally and sensibly, they’re going to take positions whereby they are going to get exposure to equines, small animals and some large animals. I think that’s the biggest challenge we have.”

Corcoran added that the out of hours and weekend work is another turn off, with younger people seeking more of a work-life balance.

Service

“Not being hard on our medical brethren, they have extremely difficult jobs and their case loads are extremely heavy but they certainly don’t provide the same degree of out of hours and emergency cover that the veterinary profession do.

“In 20 years’ time, how feasible can it be? There’s employment law and there are health and safety issues around asking people to work 100 plus hours a week.

“Farmers currently have an excellent veterinary service, I just wonder will that be able to continue into the future purely because of the difficulties we have in attracting vets to this type of work and retaining them within our practices – I think it’s going to be a major issue.”

Out-of-hours services

Providing out-of-hours services are currently being run as a loss leader in a lot of practices, Corcoran said, and farmers are not aware of the expense attached to providing the level of cover out of hours that vets do.

“There’s huge expense attached to that in terms of subsistence for staff, for pay rates you have to give staff to work Saturdays, Sundays and nights.

“Farmers won’t accept that, they find it hard to believe, but those out-of-hours services are certainly a loss leader within our services and I think they will inevitably become more expensive for the clients,” he said.

Government supports

Corcoran maintained that there may need to be a role in certain parts of the country for Government supports or incentives to help practices hire and keep staff.

Vets, he added, have a duty of care to provide the level of support and out-of-hours care that they provide and a lot are currently struggling to do so.