Veterinary workforce white paper released

After being awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2023 to evaluate programs designed to attract, recruit and retain veterinary professionals, Dr Bronwyn Orr completed her international travels in October 2024 and has published a Veterinary Workforce White Paper summarising her findings.

Travelling to Canada, the USA, UK and New Zealand, Dr Orr met with regulators, universities, peak bodies and government officials to discuss veterinary workforce issues and explore solutions being trialled in each country. Along the way, she discovered a range of policy interventions being used to improve workforce distribution issues such as rural bonding for new graduates, grants for veterinary practices to purchase equipment, pay for locums, a Medicare-like system where livestock veterinary visits are partially reimbursed and ‘nation building’ schemes that increase rural clinic revenue.

The language around veterinary workforce issues has been changing also, with many jurisdictions now referring to a ‘distribution’ problem rather than a true ‘shortage’ of veterinary professionals. There are certainly shortages in key areas of the profession, namely rural and regional practices, government practice and equine practices, however overall, there has never been more veterinarians (or veterinary students) then there is now.

The range of programs available overseas highlights the lack of similar initiatives in Australia. Despite a positive 2024 with both Tasmania and Victoria implementing small scale schemes to help address veterinary workforce issues, there is an absence of ambitious or broad-scale programs in Australian jurisdictions.

Ultimately, Dr Orr posed two questions to regulators, animal owners and government officials to help answer whether there was an appetite for policy intervention in the veterinary workforce in Australia:

1. Are veterinary services considered essential, and if so, how much are we willing to intervene to secure those services?
2. Does farm animal health and welfare matter to our livestock producers, and if so, is the accessibility of veterinary services a limiting factor to achieving good health and welfare?

Dr Orr believes answering those two questions will help determine if advocating for intervention in the veterinary workforce will be successful.

The White Paper is freely available and can be found here: https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/fellow/bronwyn-orr-act-2023/.