Vet clinics join forces in Regina to make up for staff shortages

Whether you’re Team Cats or Team Dogs, we can all agree that furry friends are an important part of our lives.

Taking care of those pets is important too, but Regina is facing a veterinarian shortage.

The shortage has caused the city’s only 24-hour clinic to close its doors after 8 p.m. daily.

Dr. Lesley Sawa, a vet at the Animal Clinic of Regina, spoke with Greg Morgan about the shortage.

“Here in the city, our 24-hour clinic unfortunately couldn’t staff to do 24-hour care. So right now, all of us vets here in the city did band together to do an on-call schedule so we can cover the overnights for our clients and patients,” she said.

She said vets in the city have been facing the issue for quite some time. In rural areas, it’s even worse.

“Most of us are really struggling right now. We’ve got areas where there’s very little vet coverage. Single practitioners, especially in rural areas, are doing daytime work and on-call work all the time,” she said.

She’s thankful the city has enough resources that the clinics can band together. In rural areas, those vets have no extra help.

According to a Facebook post, the 24 Hour Animal Care Centre partnered with community veterinary hospitals to provide on-call emergency care services. The service began on Oct. 1 and runs between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Pet owners can call the 24 Hour Animal Care Centre’s number and they will be connected with a registered veterinary technician. If the situation is critical, arrangements will be made for the caller’s pet to be seen at the hospital that is on call for the evening.

Eleven veterinary clinics are part of the on-call group.

According to Sawa, the increased need for animal care comes from a rural demand and an increase in pet ownership.

“The pet population has increased dramatically, but the number of veterinarians that are practising in the city has not,” she said.

Vets have been wearing themselves thin, trying to help in any ways they can.

“But there’s only so much we can see and do. We’re no good to anybody if we’re exhausted and can’t function during the day because we are so overwhelmed,” said Sawa.

Often, vets are putting in extra hours.

“For veterinarians, we’ve very compassionate people, so it’s quite hard for us to sometimes turn someone away. So we’re often taking in more cases in a day than we can really manage,” Sawa said.

There have been five additional seats added at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, but Sawa doesn’t think it’s enough.

“Right now, the number of veterinarians being graduated are only enough to cover the people that are retiring,” she said.

Veterinary technicians are in demand too.

“They are a huge part of the team. The more hands we have, the better we are able to manage our situation in our clinics,” she said.

Sawa wants the government to fund more seats at the vet college. She encourages people to talk to their local MLAs to increase the number of training seats available.

The Animal Clinic of Regina is one of many clinics across the city that joined forces to cover overnight shifts due to staff shortages. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)