A shortage of Australian vets is threatening prosperity and food supplies in regional Australia, a NSW parliamentary inquiry has heard.
The veterinary workforce shortage in NSW inquiry was kicked off in response to reports that vets were leaving the industry and committing suicide at an alarming rate.
Since its initiation in June 2023, it has heard evidence unmanageable workloads and inadequate pay are driving people away from vetting. This effect is even more pronounced in the large animal vets that support the work of farmers.
Only 8% of the state’s vets live in rural, regional and remote NSW, resulting in huge areas that are virtual service deserts. These include some of Australia’s traditional stocking heartlands, like the central west, capital country and Riverina.
These issues are compounded by people’s emotional attachment to their pets and livestock, which the inquiry has heard results in regular abuse and aggression towards vets.
Addressing the regional NSW committee last week, Charles Sturt University (CSU) veterinary scientist Sarah Pollard-Williams said this was not a uniquely Australian problem. She said that while the government may not be in a position to help vets, it is in a position to help animals in under-serviced communities.
“Stressors frequently cited by veterinarians in practice include poor remuneration, long hours, threatening clients and the ongoing problem of clients who cannot afford to treat their pets,” she said.
“The state government is not in a position to resolve the many issues in a profession with a historically very low profitability. They are, however, able to channel and fund certain services within the animal care and welfare sectors to relieve the pressure on private businesses.
“These areas include the provision of local pounds, and I ask the committee to cross-reference to the many submissions to the pound inquiry.”
In previous hearings, the committee has heard the vet shortage has negative effects on whole communities as well as individuals and their animals. Regional and rural communities that are heavily reliant on farming need large animal vets to prevent the spread of disease, to address injury that may make animals unprofitable, and to help livestock through pregnancy and birth safely.
Without the vets necessary to service their local area, livestock communities face the possibility of economic collapse. Farmer’s advocates have also pointed out there would be downstream effects to this, like generally higher prices for meat, eggs and dairy.
CSU adjunct professor of veterinary science Kenneth Jacobs told the committee that empowering farmers to perform some basic procedures themselves — like the administration of pain relief — would reduce the burden on both vets and farmers.
“One of the problems that we have at the present time as rural practitioners is that, under the prescribing guidelines, we really are not able to give out drugs for routine pain relief procedures for farmers without visiting the farm. That’s all very well, but you go out and visit the farm and you’re sitting in the kitchen, visiting the farm,” he said.
“That really annoys farmers because if you’re a farmer and you’ve got a sheep with a foot abscess, you don’t want to have a vet necessarily come and visit the farm to deal with that sheep, but you do need medication for it.
“The Veterinary Surgeons Board could quite easily give directives that you go through a formatted discussion of how local anaesthetics and anti-inflammatory drugs should be used, and do that on an in-clinic basis, and save that farm visit as being an additional cost.”
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