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Pet owners know that injuries, accidents and illness can strike a pet at any time – and these things often happen outside working hours.
On the Hibiscus Coast, the nearest emergency (after hours) vet services are on the North Shore and in Albany, which can mean a stressful late night drive only to find the practice is too busy to help, and be sent on into other parts of Auckland city.
Local vets say that there is a huge need for an after hours veterinary service on the Coast – but that it will be a long time coming.
Vet Matt Gumbrell of Ōrewa Beach Vets says the workload of vets has also increased, with population growth and an estimated 30 percent rise in pet ownership since the first lockdown. He says lockdowns have also made owners more vigilant about their pet’s health – and this is one reason for people noticing the lack of emergency services even more at present.
“The nature of after hours services is that the random occurrence of needs means demand cannot be predicted – and so sometimes the service will be overwhelmed.
No vet is happy with this, as we all want our patients to be able to be seen when needed. But as in human health, when there is overwhelming demand, we need to carefully prioritize pets with serious problems such as severe trauma or illness.”
Gumbrell says other factors at play include the cost of equipping and staffing a high quality after hours service, which is substantial, and vet burnout.
“Part of the reason for the shortage of vets is a high attrition rate due to the challenges of the job and resulting mental health issues. Those of us who have done on-call emergency cover in the past can attest to the strain it places on us.”
One local vet who has experienced this for himself is Vet Brett Finlayson of Ōrewa, Manly and Millwater Vet Hospitals.
Finlayson operated an after hours (24/7) service for his own clients and other practices for 17 years – from 2004-2021.
“Most of that time I did it on my own, until it got too busy and I managed to get other vets in our practice to help me out,” Finlayson says.
He says he then looked seriously at setting up a stand-alone designated after hours service, where staff were at the clinic overnight (as opposed to being at home and available for call outs). But it was impossible to staff it and currently staffing is even more of an issue.
“There was a shortage of vets and vet nurses before Covid-19 and now there is a catastrophic shortage of both,” he says. “It is hard enough to get and keep staff to run the normal hour clinics let alone an afterhours clinic. Of course part of that is a desire of staff to have some sort of normal life – and rightly so.”
“We are lucky to have two after hours clinics as close as Albany and Glenfield but yes, there is a huge need for an after hours service on the Coast. Is it going to happen in the foreseeable future? Almost certainly not.”
