Lack of veterinarians threatens – salzburg.ORF.at
timeline
The Salzburg Veterinary Association warns of an acute shortage of veterinarians. In the years to come, many veterinarians of the baby boomer generation will retire. These mainly include large animal practitioners who drive directly to the farm animals.
There has already been an emergency meeting in Lungau because of these emergency services. In Tennengau, too, it is becoming more and more difficult to find veterinarians who are on call at the weekend, says the President of the Salzburg Veterinary Chamber, Gernot Eibl.
Eibl adds that it is now the case that a conscientious weekend is no longer an emergency service around the clock and nationwide: “Our colleagues do this voluntarily – they don’t get anything in return. From this point of view it is of course more and more difficult to organize a complete service around the clock at the weekend. “
Financial support required
The practitioners assure us that acute emergencies will still be dealt with. The University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna is increasing the number of places from 200 to 220 places due to the shortage, but after graduation many students would prefer to work in research or in pharmaceutical companies rather than in animal practices.
Even if it won’t solve the shortage of veterinarians in the long term, Switzerland is desperately looking for veterinarians.