A veterinary shortage is being observed across Saskatchewan as Regina’s 24-hour Animal Care Centre will no longer provide emergency services during the evenings.
The TM’z Veterinary Clinic sent a community notice on social media Monday that the 24-hour Animal Care Centre in Regina will not be able to provide services from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., which is forcing 11 veterinary clinics to adapt.
“There will no longer be a clinic in the area that will be staffed with a veterinarian 24 hours a day,” TM’z Veterinary Clinic stated in the post. “The public needs to be aware that hospitalized patients may be left unattended for periods of the night without direct veterinary supervision. The landscape of ER services has shifted and with this change, it is important for all Saskatchewan residents in this area to be aware.”
Many veterinarians have taken it upon themselves to continue to provide essential care and services to animals in need. According to the social media post, 11 veterinary clinics in Regina and surrounding areas will work on a rotational basis.
Dr. Tracy Fisher, the medical director at Albert North Veterinary Clinic, says it’s been difficult to try and meet demand.
“We’ve adjusted our schedules to make more room for emergency spots and we’ve been taking drop offs and trying to do as much as we can with what we have,” said Dr. Fisher. “It can be really quite stressful, especially to manage the workload on certain days. Some days we just can’t take another patient.”
Gillian Muir, the dean of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, said the veterinarian shortage has been building for a while but became quite a bit more acute during the pandemic.
“It’s really being driven by increasing demand for animal health services, for veterinary services,” Muir said. “As a society, we need to address it a couple of ways. I think the shortage extent is not just a shortage of veterinarians, but also a shortage of veterinary technicians or veterinary technologists there, like veterinary nurses.”
Muir said the reason for the increase in demand for veterinary services is that there are more pet owners and not enough people to meet that demand. The Western College of Veterinary Medicine is addressing this in a few ways, such as increasing its class size to 88 instead of 78 students.
“After our recent increase in class size, we are now at capacity. So, we don’t have any more space in classrooms and labs. We don’t have enough instructors, and we need more resources … to teach a larger class,” Muir said. “The other thing that we are doing is working closely with the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association to increase our capacity to qualify more internationally trained veterinarians to work in Canada.”
Last fall, a feasibility study was launched to look at what it would take in terms of infrastructure to increase their class size. The study is expected to be completed within a year.
In the TM’z Veterinary Clinic’s post, it is encouraging those affected to contact their MLA to bring awareness to the need for more veterinary seats at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.