Vets no longer working in outlying area

[tepapa]

During the battle she said she jad spent the afternoon comvincing the practice student that large animals best as get out in the womderfull country side and the famers a much nicer easier to work with than public , good news but i bet the student goes small animal .

My wife would have spent the afternoon convincing them to look for another career.

 

[SteveHants]

Maybe that is the solution there. Offer perm Visa's and get the Practice staffed with Romanian Vets who will work like troopers.

I was visiting Uni. Bristol vet school and apparently most abattoir vets will be foreign as the UK ones see it as being somehow "beneath them".

A few vet students keen on ag, a few even turned up at my "careers day" event because they preferred it to the one their dept was putting on.

 

[Dry Rot]

My father was telling me earlier tonight that he was speaking to a cousin who had a dog that ate grapes recently, they phoned the vet and they said we'll give you a tablet to make the dog sick. Away they went down to practice, the girl behind the counter handed over tablet and said that will be £90 thank you!

Little wonder they want into small animal practices at that price, could you imagine giving a farmer a tablet for any animal on the farm and saying £90 please, I don't think it would go down well....

Yell.com comes up with only one veterinary practice for the whole of Caithness which is a very large county. I'd suggest that's your problem. Maggie Thatcher, "A monopoly is not good for the consumer".

 

[SteveHants]

The trouble the vet world will have is that unless people become partners in their practice, their salaries reach a ceiling. And with more and more practices being bought up by corporates, there will be fewer and fewer privately owned practices. The medical world already has an acute shortage of virtually all specialties at all levels so this does not really apply.

You hit the nail on the head here. It's nothing to do with women - women have careers nowadays.

It's more that the old "partnership" model is being replaced by aggressive corporate takeovers, putting staff on as low a salary as they can get away with, who now never have a chance to part own their practice.

The same thing happened in care homes.

 

[upnortheast]

I think it’s the selection process, the bar is set so high. I’m not sure if it’s the same today but it used to be easier to get into medicine than veterinary.

That`s true. a very bright lad we know tried hard to get into vet school but was rejected.
Went into medicine. Now one of the top cancer specialists in the region

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Specialist pig vets work quite reasonable hours and very few call outs. They visit their clients quarterly (a Red Tractor requirement) and the visit is more akin to a walk round with a consultant- with a good look at herd performance data and herd health.
A good "halfway house" career choice for a vet that likes farm animals but not ridiculous hours. You can even start out on your own with just a car and a laptop and the clients can use another practice for dispensing.

 

[Farmer Fin]

Yell.com comes up with only one veterinary practice for the whole of Caithness which is a very large county. I'd suggest that's your problem. Maggie Thatcher, "A monopoly is not good for the consumer".

Not sure you understand what monopoly means. What you are talking about is an area that can only sustain 1 practice. If you think there is enough work for 2 by all means set one up. There is nothing stopping you.

 

[Farmer Fin]

I was visiting Uni. Bristol vet school and apparently most abattoir vets will be foreign as the UK ones see it as being somehow "beneath them".

A few vet students keen on ag, a few even turned up at my "careers day" event because they preferred it to the one their dept was putting on.

Meat hygiene isn’t probably what people would call rewarding work. The main issue is that nearly all the hygiene work is now controlled by 2 companies who have driven down the rates they charge and pay the vets accordingly. Now that’s a monopoly.

 

[Hesstondriver]

back to the OPs point

if a vet wont cover your area, can you still keep stock (legally) and if you cant does that devalue the farm ? if the trend continued it could open up litigation cases i suppose?

i took an alternative approach and married one

 

[Dave6170]

Yell.com comes up with only one veterinary practice for the whole of Caithness which is a very large county. I'd suggest that's your problem. Maggie Thatcher, "A monopoly is not good for the consumer".

They cover a fair chunk of Sutherland too! they’ve always given a good service.
The worst thing that could happen is if they sold out to a big firm.

 

[Optimus]

Meat hygiene isn’t probably what people would call rewarding work. The main issue is that nearly all the hygiene work is now controlled by 2 companies who have driven down the rates they charge and pay the vets accordingly. Now that’s a monopoly.

Better hours though, an if they wanted too bet they could do some after hours work at a practice.

We had one that worked atan abattoir. Then joined our old practice.lasted 8month then went back to abbatoir work.

 

[Farmer Fin]

Better hours though, an if they wanted too bet they could do some after hours work at a practice.

We had one that worked atan abattoir. Then joined our old practice.lasted 8month then went back to abbatoir work.

That’s what is used to be. Local vet went to abattoir first thing, then went on to the rest of their calls.

 

[som farmer]

2 local practices have gone small animals only- 1/2 of one, joined our vets. Another practice has had to call for help, to manage TB testing, cannot cope.
our practice is losing 2 vets, 1 partner, wants to to 'something' else, and one swapping calving for midwifery.
but we have some young male vets, unusual, and the lady vets are very good. (not sure if that is PC)

 

[MRT]

I would argue that there is a lot of what I would call 'rocket science' involved in some of this stuff.

No. Its all simple. That is a fact. Vetting is a vast, vast bulk of knowhow any little bit is simple.

 

[MRT]

pay and conditions ? so what pay and conditions do you think is fair? our lot charge £39 for prebooked visit then over £130, an hour plus meds? the trouble is everything is upside down? doctors like vets i would of thought, if going, into the profession would expect, understand that animals patients dont just get ill, need attention between office hours? but no doctors now do far less hours work for more money? but going back to cattle, farming vets, its all another reason that livestock farmers will pack up?

I cannot get over all the contributors here that think the vet that gives you the tablet for £90 or call out £39 pockets that cash. Its the difference between sale price of a steer and your margin. The salaried vet you are moaning about may not be making the living wage per hour of duty which makes the wage very easy to replace.

There is mention of teaching here, teachers in a primary school earn more than vets doing double the hours. I know vets who have left and become teachers!

Regarding the idea of keeping the status quo of the profession the same ie poor pay and conditions efforts have been made to bring vets from abroad and more and more vets are being trained, there are vet schools popping up like mushrooms.

 

[Dry Rot]

They cover a fair chunk of Sutherland too! they’ve always given a good service.
The worst thing that could happen is if they sold out to a big firm.

I think there used to be just a handful of practices for the whole of the Highlands, north of Inverness. I remember there was a lot of bad feeling when Gerry McIntyre broke the monopoly by starting up as an independent in Tain. There's a few practices now but not many do horses and others stopped. Don't know about cattle.

 

[bluebell]

the whole problem is this, livestock farmers, that is those that try to farm for a living as opposed to hobby? farmers just do not earn enough money for the work time and investment, plus the skills required? the average welsh farm income was about £25,000, to take farming serious as a career for young entrants the money plus the work, involved has to be a profitable career choice?

 

[Dry Rot]

I cannot get over all the contributors here that think the vet that gives you the tablet for £90 or call out £39 pockets that cash. Its the difference between sale price of a steer and your margin. The salaried vet you are moaning about may not be making the living wage per hour of duty which makes the wage very easy to replace.

There is mention of teaching here, teachers in a primary school earn more than vets doing double the hours. I know vets who have left and become teachers!

Regarding the idea of keeping the status quo of the profession the same ie poor pay and conditions efforts have been made to bring vets from abroad and more and more vets are being trained, there are vet schools popping up like mushrooms.

Charging £90 for a pill that the client has collected is just bad business and bad public relations, especially as the client wasn't fore warned. Sorry, but if my vet did that to me he would get an ear full!

 

[MRT]

Charging £90 for a pill that the client has collected is just bad business and bad public relations, especially as the client wasn't fore warned. Sorry, but if my vet did that to me he would get an ear full!

Yes fine, give the practice an ear full, the vet does not get to choose the price. I couldn't say "ah, its Mr Rot, I'm going to charge the old devil £90". You give the poor vet an ear full and all that happens is they look for an alternative job!

 

[M-J-G]

No ,I don’t and I don’t really know how to sort it but I do feel that knowledge doesn’t equal aptitude and sometimes going for people with the highest grades doesn’t necessarily give you the ones with the best aptitude for the job

The acceptance rate is similar to the application rate, at around 80 to 85% female.
One of our university vets says that they're just aren't the males coming forward and applying.