26 Jan 2023
The veterinary sector has to take its people as seriously as its animals, the BVA president tells delegates.
Allister Webb
Job Title
BVA president Malcolm Morley addressed delegates at the SPVS Congress in Birmingham on 26 January. Main image © Monkey Business / Adobe Stock
The veterinary sector must treat its people as seriously as the animals in its care if it is to solve its current workforce crisis, SPVS Congress delegates have heard.
The 2023 conference opened in Birmingham today (26 January), with a focus on areas including finance, leadership and self-development under the overarching theme of “Thriving in Practice”.
BVA president Malcolm Morley told the congress the sector’s workforce crisis needed to be a catalyst for positive change.
He said: “We have some thorny issues. We have to grasp them. If not now, when?”
Dr Morley highlighted data from the BVA’s Voice of the Professions survey, which found that, in 2021, 67% of participants described their job-related stress as either “not very good” or “terrible”. Nearly half (47%) also used the same terms to describe their work-life balance.
Although a 2022 survey found the proportion of out-of-hours work had been falling in recent years, Dr Morley argued the sector’s problems would be even worse than they are if that wasn’t the case.
He also suggested practices that do have full veterinary teams were unlikely to have been lucky in achieving that.
Dr Morley said: “They have usually reached that position by treating people as seriously as the animals they treat.”
But, while highlighting the association’s Good Veterinary Workplaces scheme, he also urged professionals not to be “overwhelmed” by its seven topics, instead focusing on the areas where they can make a difference to their practices.
Leadership consultant and IVC Evidensia group veterinary advisor Paul Horwood said the sector could not rely on bodies like the BVA, RCVS or others to resolve its problems.
Dr Horwood stressed that workforce issues are not unique to the veterinary profession and urged professionals to seek further qualifications for themselves, rather than in an attempt to prove they were worthy of being in the profession.
He said: “Nobody joins this profession by accident. Nobody wakes up one morning and says, ‘I’m going to be a vet tomorrow’. We spend decades trying to get into this profession. You are good enough.”
