Veterinary clinics around Western Australia continue to feel the squeeze as staff shortages are causing many clinics to close their books to new patients and emergency centres across the metropolitan to frequently go on bypass.

Owner of the Fremantle Animal Hospital and West Coast Vet Hospital in Fremantle, Garnett Hall, told Millsy and Karl Covid cannot take the full blame, as this issue has been building for years.

“Here in WA we only have one university capable of producing vets and they do a great job but they’ve only got so many places that they can fill – and the number is not quite enough to fill the gaps that already exist in the profession,” Mr Hall said.

“I don’t know many new graduates who would be happy with a starting salary of $52,000 in the veterinary profession – if they had put five years of really difficult effort in one of the hardest to get into courses and graduate with at least $100,000 of HEC debt.”

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