National shortage of vets

fly-catchers

Having just lost my cat to long term liver disease it strikes me that getting a vet is harder than ever before. My current vet surgery only has an actual vet there one day a week. It’s open 5 days but just the receptionist the rest of the time. All other local vets are in a similar situation and not taking on new clients. Even on his last day I had to travel quite some distance to eventually find a vet which made the whole sad stressful day even worse. Unsure whether I should get another cat even though I love them as this vet situation is worrying. Not sure if it’s Brexit, Covid or some other reason related. And yet the local rescue centres are becoming far more particular as to whom they rehome their cats to. Thinking that my rather chaotic (messy) house might not be up the their standards! House feels quiet now…

sheramber

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) is highlighting a storm of shortages after the workforce saw a drop of more than two-thirds in new EU registrants coming to work in the UK in two years.

https://www.bva.co.uk/news-and-blog/news-article/uk-s-veterinary-workforce-crisis-deepens-as-eu-registrant-numbers-drop-by-over-two-thirds-since-brexit/over-two-thirds-since-brexit/

KxMx

From my perspective of working within a cat rescue, Brexit started the problem and covid made it worse.

Do you live in a small community? 

Even in a fair sized town things got quite bad Vet wise following Covid, settled down now but just last week we were told that out Vets (two practices) couldn't fit in a neuter for 10 days.

That obviously has a knock on effect of keeping a cat in care for longer and the next cat coming in being delayed. 

fly-catchers

Yes I live in a small town and not driving I use taxi to go to and from. And there are taxi driver shortages as well and out of town journeys are discouraged or just not available anymore. So what used to be fairly painless situation of taking a cat to the vets (apart from trying to put them in their carrier!) is now much more stressful! Some of the best vets I have encountered were students (sometimes from abroad) learning on the job.