Resumen de Recruitment: Shortage of experienced vets
READ with interest your news item about the report from the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) regarding the shortage of vets in the UK (VR, October 3, 2015, vol 177, p 325). We are a traditional mixed practice and on advertising for an experienced mixed practitioner recently had very few applicants and no UK-trained vets applied.
I then saw with dismay later in BVA News in the same issue that this lack of vets and certainly mixed animal vets is not on the list of the BVA's ‘Priority areas for the coming year’ (p 347). We appear to be training an increased number of vets in the UK, but where do they disappear to and why do they not want to do mixed practice? Are the vet schools selecting candidates unwilling or incapable of multitasking across the species? Or is it the out-of-hours and being on-call that puts people off?....
