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ISLEOFMANEXAMINER

Tuesday, September 14, 2021 www.iomtoday.co.im

NEWS

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Vets’ staff shortages because ofCovid

byGemmaNettle

Arg Beiyn, the island veterinary practice, has had to stop taking on newclients. This isasaresultof increasedde- mandduringthepandemicandstaff shortages caused inpart by Brexit. Louise Bawden, practice direc- tor at Arg Beiyn, said staffwere ‘ex- hausted’. She said: ‘We don’t want to turn anyone away, we’re just trying to protect the wellbeing of our staff at the moment, they’re really worn out. ‘We currently have a third of the vets we used to have so two thirds have gone because of Brexit. ‘We’ve also had Covid where we’ve had a huge increase in people gettingnewpetsthathasneverbeen seenbefore. ‘The pandemic has been really, reallytoughandnowwecan’tgetvet- erinary staff and our current staff are worn out from the increased workload.’ Staff have been leaving due to stress in an effort to protect their health. Shecontinued: ‘Someare leaving because it’s not a very nice profes- sion towork in anymore. ‘We’ve had the effect from both the Brexit side and theCovid side.’ Laura Bruder, also a practice di- rector at Arg Beiyn, added: ‘There usedtobealotmorevetsbut it’sbeen challenging because you’re asking someone to move their whole life

‘Obviously as the staff numbers drop, that pressure gets worse and the staffbecomemore tired. ‘It’s not necessarily something that’s very attractive to vets who couldbe inEnglandwhere they can go home at the end of the day and switchoff.’ Thepractice isnot currentlyfill- ing out animal health certificates which allowowners to legally bring theirpets totheUKwithoutanysort of quarantine. Ms Bawden stressed the process of filling one out took twohours. ‘Whenwehaveafullpracticeand wehavetwohoursallocatedtothose,

over here. ‘Veterinary as a profession has really grown and we train our own nurses, we are the only training practice in the island currently, but that’s not quite enough. ‘We actually thought since we wereCovidfreeforsolongthatmight entice people here but it didn’t.’ Based in Onchan and Ramsey, Arg Beiyn provides emergency care for animals 24/7. Ms Bruder added: ‘That’s one of the things that’s different in the Isle ofMan-regardlessofhowmanypeo- ple we have working for us, we pro- vide emergency care all the time.

ArgBeiynpracticedirectors LouiseBawdenandLauraBruder

Bothdirectorsmade it clear that thoughthey’renottakingonnewcli- ents, they are happy to give advice on the phone if a person is worried about their pet. ‘If there’sananimal that issuffer- ingwewoulddoourbest tohelp,’Ms Bawden added.

it just makes no sense when we’ve got sick animals that we can’t fit in because of it,’ she said. Ms Bruder added: ‘They did do popups to allowpets tobe seenby a vet ifyouweretravelling-theywould specificallydotheanimalhealthcer- tificates.’

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