Telehealth Flagged as Solution to Critical Vet Shortage. ABC News 13/7/24

[Deeds]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-13/telehealth-flagged-as-solution-to-critical-vet-shortage/104080264

[tdierikx]

Telehealth is not the only finding or solution to the vet workforce shortage... which is a global issue, not just in Australia.

 

The full report can be found here, for anyone who wants to read it... Trigger warning: it covers some distressing topics

https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/inquiries/2964/Report No. 58 - PC 4 - Veterinary workforce shortage in New South Wales.pdf

 

T.

[Deeds]

If Telehealth is anything like Services NSW it won't work well.

[tdierikx]

I think there are a couple of private veterinary telehealth providers active already... and at least one is connected to a pet insurance company, which could be problematic if the focus is on diverting possible claims on insurance.

 

The only issue I have with telehealth for our pets is that unlike humans, our pets cannot accurately describe their medical situation, and most owners aren't terribly good at it either. Unless there is a physical examination of the animal, I would be loathe to allow diagnoses or prescribing of medications, however, it would be invaluable as a triaging service to weed out those basic cases that aren't urgent and can wait until business hours for an actual vet to see the animal - as is the current model referred to in the article.

 

I'm all for a triaging telehealth service for our pets, but it's only one small tool that could be part of a larger range of services employed to deal with the situation at hand.

 

As the article states, many graduating vet students only manage to last around 5 years in the industry before they leave for other pursuits. I personally believe that is due to the vet courses not being well designed enough to produce actual work-ready vets on graduation. Universities are constantly reducing the resources they need to achieve this goal, too much focus is on the theory/academic side of vet science, and not enough on actual practical experience because of the lack of those resources. Another issue is how prospective vet students are selected for the available courses - too much focus on academic results, rather than aptitude for the profession. And don't get me started on the sheer number of overseas student places allocated to these courses, which means that local students are competing for a smaller number of available places in the course.

 

Then there is the ever shrinking list of procedures that are allowed to be performed by non-vets. Gone are the days when experienced vet nurses would be entrusted to do simple surgical procedures like castrations of cats and dogs (under vet supervision/sign-off of course). Vet nurses are taught how to place sutures also, but are not actually allowed to do so once they are in the workplace - surely cleaning and suturing of most non-complicated wounds could be entrusted to nurses where vets are scarce. Vaccinations are not rocket science either, yet must be performed by a vet (specifically for dogs and cats), but vaccinations for livestock and rabbits can actually be performed by anyone - not just those with any medical experience. I'm all for a registration scheme for vet nurses which would then allow them to perform more procedures legally. However, if vet nurses are legally allowed to perform more procedures, they should be paid more than minimum wage to do so... this is not a simple case of farming out procedures to cheaper providers.

 

All that said, the rising costs of everything is also a factor. It costs real money to set up and maintain a working vet clinic, and that needs to be taken into account when discussing the cost of providing the services they do. Medicare has us complacent about what the actual costs of providing human healthcare are, and so we are shocked when that safety net isn't available when looking for healthcare for our pets. Pet insurance is a rip-off, often being cost prohibitive to low income earners anyways, so that's not a viable option for that sector of our pet owning population. We are seeing a situation where Medicare for human health is not working as intended, so I'm not of the opinion that introducing a similar scheme for pet healthcare is the answer either.

 

Complex issues require complex solutions, and I'm not confident that the recommendations offered by the inquiry will go far enough to resolving most of the issues here... but it makes for warm fuzzies when they can announce to the media that they've "done something" about it, yes? Even if what is done is just the tip of the iceberg, and doesn't actually go far enough towards resolving the actual problem. Note the focus of the article is on the most simple and least impactful recommendation... but it can be implemented quickly and relatively cheaply, so it will probably be the only thing actually actioned IMHO...

 

T.

[DogsAndTheMob]

Recently, I had an opportunity to observe “behind the lines” of a corporate vet clinic for a few hours. I was appalled by the inefficiency. The non-clinical to clinical ratio in the clinic was 3 to 2 (practice manager and two reception staff vs a nurse and a vet), which doesn’t even factor in the number of head-office staff. Standard appointment times were 30 minutes, which seems unnecessary long for vaccinations and minor lumps, bumps and scrapes. The practice manager was annoyed because an owner and her two dogs had been booked into one 30 minute slot, instead of separate slots for each dog.
 

The reception staff chatted while calls went unanswered. When they did answer, they were booked out until the middle of the next week, so even their own clients were told to look elsewhere for urgent care (eg a large dog with suspected bloat). There were no appointment slots available for clients who had missed their last annual vaccination.

 

The waiting room was empty most of the morning. I remember when that practice was vet-run and busy all the time, both with patients and with people coming in to buy pet care products. The corporate practice had a very small range of over the counter medications and almost no other pet care products.

 

It seems like a catch-22, exacerbated by inefficiency. I can’t see how 30 minute appointments and a high non-clinical to clinical staff ratio can support reasonable vet salaries and I wonder why any vet would stay in an industry that’s highly stressful and doesn’t pay salaries comparable to those of other people who have studied for five or more years and accrued large HECS debts.

 

It’s not a profitable business model for the corporations either. I was curious enough to look up an investment website that compared corporate vet business with other corporate investments such as accountants and lawyers. The returns on spending for veterinary businesses was much lower than those for other businesses.