Regional vet shortages resulting in long wait times and some service closures

Ace Vet Hospital director Andrew Jacotine, Euroa, has been rallying for decades for better support in the industry, and said attention on the issue was required years ago.

"The breaking point [is] behind us, now it's which wall are we crashing through?" Dr Jacotine said.

"The industry is collapsing, because a year ago the majority of clinics were doing after-hours call outs and very few are doing that now, it's collapsed in a year."

As a result of staff shortages, like many other clinics, they've had to reduce hours and no longer offer after-hours care, which he said could be very upsetting for clients and staff.

"Euroa doesn't have a constant police presence yet we were providing a 24-hour vet service, we can't sustain it though and that has had a snowball effect," he said.

"I've been a vet in the north-east for 25 years and we noted it as an issue back then.

"We can't employ people regionally, they don't want to do after hours or have the isolation and I think we simply run out of staff."

Dr Jacotine said these issues had resulted in an increase in public complaints to the Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria, which then saw veterinary registration costs go up.

"My registration fee has gone up 20 per cent because the board is receiving more stuff from the public," he said.

"We're a tiny industry that receives the same burden."

He said the situation was similar in other local sectors.

"The police station shuts because they can't get enough staff and same with the hospital and we don't have anywhere near the resourcing that [metropolitan areas] have," he said.

Australian Veterinary Association president Bronwyn Orr has been rallying for government support for the sector, presenting a proposal to forgive HECs debt of graduates who live and work in regional or rural areas, which was recently refused.

"We've gotten the message," Dr Orr said.

"[Federal Education Minister] Jason Clare, who's responsible for higher education, has indicated that he's not interested in any new HECs forgiveness or rural bonding program until they review the current ones in 2025.

"Now we know that's far too late, we need to provide immediate relief to rural and regional areas who are just crying out for veterinarians."

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She said another issue was not having a designated portfolio or department within the government, with the AVA's concerns having been passed from agriculture to education to employment ministers.

"It just seems very clear that this is not a problem that they're taking seriously, and that they won't put any concerted effort into which I think stakeholders, farmers and rural communities should be pretty appalled at," she said.

Dr Orr's concerns extended to the mental health impacts the shortages could have on those in the industry, with many already overworked.

"It's particularly hard in regional areas, when by law we have to provide 24-hour care to our patients," she said.

"[There's] fatigue, stress and even a lack of financial support as it's not a high-paying profession.

"We have people who are working so hard for not that much money, who are undergoing the same stressors as everyone else at the moment with rising interest rates and unfortunately, it can be a bit of a perfect storm.

"We do see that mental health is an issue in our profession, and it's certainly something we as the professional body are taking very seriously and doing things about; we have been raising it with government as well."

Interstate, she said in a town like Forbes, NSW, there were a handful of vets servicing an agricultural region slightly smaller than Scotland.

"This is happening more and more, vets are retiring and moving out of the regions," she said.

"It has massive losses for agriculture, abattoirs and feedlots.

"It opens the door for massive biosecurity hazards that we won't pick up when we have an incursion of exotic diseases.

"We know that animal welfare will suffer if there aren't enough vets; we know that producers could lose money, it's a lose lose for everyone.

"From certain ministers we can't even get a meeting, it's unimpressive."

Ballarat Sheep Veterinary Services owner and vet Monica Dickson agreed it would be a struggle for the agriculture industry if there was an exotic disease outbreak in Australia, given the lower number of experts entering the field in regional areas.

"The challenge is to keep vets in the industry to be able to service farms, for lots of reasons," she said.

"Most veterinary clinics are expensive places to run, they have a lot of expensive equipment, it's hard to cover the cost of sending a vet away from the clinic to do something on a farm."

Dr Dickson said she recently had a job in Hopetoun when she was already travelling through the area and if she wasn't able to provide a farm visit, that farmer's alternative was to take their sheep on a three-hour round trip to access care.

"It's a lot of work and by the time they did all that, loaded the sheep, unloaded it, driven there and back, that's a day's work," she said.

"I have had people say we've been trying so hard to get someone to come and help us."

A spokesperson for Mr Clare provided no clarity on whether regional vets' call out for HECS debt forgiveness would be considered in the near future.

"When laws were passed to cut [HECS] debt for doctors and nurses who move to regional areas, the Parliament decided to review the effectiveness of this by July 2025 and consider whether it should be expanded to other professions," the spokesperson said.