Uralla vet pleased with veterinary workforce shortage recommendations

These are just a few of the total 34 recommendations handed down by the NSW Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into the Veterinary Workforce Shortage in NSW.

"The committee has listened to the people who were giving evidence and speaking and they've taken into consideration everything that they've heard," Uralla veterinarian and practice owner, Jo Hoad said.

"To me, it seems they have a good grasp of what the issues were and they've got some good recommendations.

"It'll be interesting to see what the government does with the information."

Overall, the report includes 17 findings and 34 recommendations.

According to committee chair, The Hon Mark Banasiak, many factors contributed to the veterinary workforce shortage in New South Wales, including the regulatory framework, market forces, and community expectations.

These issues created a 'perfect storm' for the workforce, affecting recruitment, retention, salaries, working hours, and mental health and wellbeing.

Ms Hoad has experienced firsthand many of the issues flagged by the committee, including working long hours with limited help and struggling to find staff to help meet demanding workloads.

"Thankfully, we are in a good place at the moment at our practice," Ms Hoad said.

"We've been fortunate to have some new vets join our team recently, which means that we're able to be able to see patients and not turn them away.

"We've also got enough time that we're not working ourselves into the ground and we can actually have holidays sometimes."

The inquiry was told about a growing mental health crisis in the sector due to workload pressures and client abuse.

Vets are four times more likely to die by suicide than the general population and, on average, a vet takes their own life every 12 weeks.

Ms Hoad herself addressed the committee at a roundtable in Inverell, along with other local vets and farmers concerned about the pressures facing professionals in the industry, especially those living and working in regional areas.

"It was really pleasing that they came to Inverell. I think that's the first time that they've actually come out into a regional area for a sitting.

"Some of the issues with the vet shortage are universal, whether you're city or rural or regional, but then the regional areas have a lot of other factors that play into because we are regional and remote," she said.

Of the recommendations, Ms Hoad said she was pleased with the focus on increasing the availability of childcare places, particularly in regional and rural areas.

Providing financial incentives for veterinarians who work with livestock, to ensure an adequate number of large animal practitioners are available to support primary producers in regional areas was also received well by Ms Hoad.

"A large proportion of our industry is now female and depending on the family circumstances, and because of the wages in the industry, oftentimes it's cheaper for a vet to stay at home and look after the kids," she said.

"It's been very difficult to get childcare in our area which has made retention of our staff difficult at times."