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GroundUp reports that a massive shortage of veterinarians in the country has left vacancies in clinics, especially in rural areas, and vets are leaving the country en masse.
About 100 veterinarians leave SA every year to work overseas, while only about 140 qualify annually, according to recent figures by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development. Paul van der Merwe, president of the SA Veterinary Association (SAVA), said the crisis was particularly felt in rural areas, where there was often a lack of equipment or medicines, and clinics frequently closed down. SA has just less than of 4,000 registered vets, of whom about 230 are specialists, which comes to just over 60 vets per million people. The international standard, according to the SA Veterinary Council, is between 200 and 400 vets per million people. Even if every student vet and other people registered with the Council are counted, the total is still just over 100 per million people, far short of the international standard. A rural vet from KwaZulu-Natal, Tod Collins, who has been practicing for about 50 years, described being a rural vet as tough and very “physically demanding”. Collins noted that being a vet often took a toll on mental wellbeing, and depression, anxiety, and burnout were some of the reasons vets left the profession. According to Van der Merwe, there are several reasons for the shortage of vets, the first being remuneration as vets are often underpaid. He pointed out that the shortage of vets has created a “vicious circle”, because as conditions worsen, more vets burn out and leave the country.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Liezl Human at GroundUp
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