Nov 10th, 2021
4 mins
At a recent Defra led forum, we were given an update by Amivet on the current situation with regards to vet capacity in the UK.
Back in July 2021, Official Veterinarians (OV’s) were just about coping, albeit operating long hours to ensure the additional workload was covered. Unfortunately, we must report that rather than seeing improvements, Amivet painted quite a bleak picture with latest intel showing that we now have an overall shortage of somewhere in the region of 3000 vets across all veterinary clinical settings.
With approximately 28,000 vets in the UK who are MRCVS qualified, some might consider this a substantial figure, but we are warned that the number of EU vets coming to the UK is decreasing year-on-year, and just around 1930 are OV’s the majority of whom work on a part time basis and do little if any certification.
Furthermore, it won’t be until the end of April 2022 until we have a clearer picture of just how many of the EU vets currently in the UK will be registered and how many will choose to return to their home country.
Whilst overall they are still coping, we are warned that there are still shortages in some areas with others having to work long hours and travel many miles to manage. It is therefore likely that very few will have spare capacity in terms of taking on new clients and therefore will be very selective.
Amivet have very kindly agreed that we can share their slides with BFFF members. Please do have a look at them here as we are sure you will find them very informative.
Amivet are also keen to engage with stakeholders to see how we can all work together to try to improve the situation, so please do let us know should you wish to engage with them and we will happily facilitate that for you.
