As you may be aware, there is a national veterinary shortage in New Zealand, this is being felt particularly hard in Dunedin, with a number of vacancies across several practices in the city. This shortage has been coupled with a large upswing in pet ownership, thought to be related to lock-down and the great companionship that pets give. This has greatly increased the workload in veterinary clinics across the country.
The hospital is critically short of veterinarians and; as such, we have to make some tough decisions regarding opening hours and after-hours cover.
Having our own veterinarians cover our emergency service has always been a great source of pride to Humanimals and a community service to our clients, as well as our seven days per week and late opening hours – so these decisions have not been taken lightly.
In the human medical field, we have our GPs, Urgent Doctors, and Accident and Emergency at the Hospital – we do not have the same breadth of coverage and service in the veterinary field. It is the same veterinarians who work through the day that cover the emergency service at night and often work through the next day as well. In order to look after our team, we need to ensure we do not burn them out, so we need to share the caseload and emergency service.
We hope some, or all, of these measures, are only temporary, whilst we recruit new team members, but currently, we do not have the staff to fully cover our current opening hours.
We ask for your patience and understanding whilst we work through this difficult time.
From May we will be sharing our after-hours emergency service with the other clinics in the city. Please familiarise yourself with their locations in case of emergency.
In case of an afterhours emergency, please call VetChat on (03) 588 0836 or start a video consultation now.
VetChat will allow you 24-hour access to a highly experienced vet via a secure and private video link. The vet will consult as normal and advise the next steps for your pet’s case.
All notes will be passed on to our team for further follow up if required at a later date. If the vet deems the case to be an emergency, you will be referred to an emergency vet in person.
