A national vet shortage combined with a local crime wave are behind the closure of one of only two veterinary clinics in Alice Springs.
Debbie Osborne has run the Alice Springs Veterinary Hospital since 1988. She made the hard decision to close the clinic when it became apparent she would not have enough staff this year.
Dr Osborne said the practice had been struggling since the pandemic.
"We've always had enough staff and … when we were between vets … we'd always get by with relief vets," she said.
"That was fine until the COVID years."
There have since been no locum vets available, Dr Osborne said, which has meant she and the other two vets at the clinic have been working in excess of 60 hours a week.
"We're short two vets," she said.
David MacPhail, hospital director of the veterinary teaching school at the University of Adelaide, said the pressures vets in Alice Springs were facing were being felt worldwide.
He said COVID had reduced the supply of international vets and increased the number of pets people had.
"It's increased the demand [for vets]," he said.
"It's a perfect storm from an economic point of view — that decreased supply and increased demand will cause problems.
"And that's exactly what we're seeing."
Dr Osborne said it had always been difficult to attract vets to the town and with the current spotlight on crime in Alice Springs it would be even harder.
She said the recent cancellation of the junior motocross championships was a wake-up call.
"If national organisations are saying, 'No, that's not safe, we're not going', then that's really the national mood and it's going to be harder [to attract staff]," Dr Osborne said.
She said it would take economic incentives to attract new graduates to the town, but that came with costs that clinics would have to pass on to their clients.
"Once you pay staff incentives to get them here — subsidising the cost of moving them, subsidising the housing and all sorts of incentives that we can put in place to get people here — that comes at a cost to the business," she said.
"And the only way that cost can be covered is through increasing fees."
Dr Osborne said the closing date of her clinic would depend on when the building sale was finalised.
National shortage
Dr MacPhail said while the pandemic had increased the pressures the industry was facing, other factors were also involved.
"It's worsened over the last three years with the COVID situation, but it was something that's been looming for probably the last decade," he said.
Dr MacPhail said the once male-dominated industry had seen a surge in female graduates, which meant there was a change in the workforce when women took time out to raise children.
"Probably 85 per cent of our students at the moment, and of practising vets recently, would be female," he said.
"It's changed the availability of vets."
Dr MacPhail said reducing HECS debts for vets who took up work in regional and remote areas could increase the number of people viewing veterinary medicine as a career.
"Some of the more rural practices may attract graduates to come out there," he said.
"I think that's a fantastic idea and I thoroughly support that.
"Whether that comes to pass, I don't know, but it's certainly something that's been discussed."
