11 Sept 2020
“If new ways of working are to be considered, now is the time to do it." BVA president, Daniella Dos Santos.
James Westgate
Job Title
The BVA wants practices to consider letting clients back into buildings amid fears “kerbside vetting” is compounding a potential mental health crisis.
When the UK went into lockdown in March, veterinary practices were told to suspend all routine work, implement strict physical distancing protocols and focus on emergency-only provision in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19. But a change in RCVS guidance the following month sparked a rapid rise in the volume of routine, non-emergency work – a trend that has continued through the summer and into autumn.
Despite this, many practices are still not allowing clients to enter the building, meaning thousands of vets and vet nurses are still having to interact with clients in car parks and on roadsides, leading to an increase in complaints and rising stress levels for clinicians.
Now, in a bid to defuse a potential mental health time bomb, outgoing BVA president Daniella Dos Santos has urged more practices to consider opening their doors to clients again.
Ms Dos Santos said: “What I am hearing loud and clear from vets and nurses – particularly in small animal practice – is that the main causes of stress are lack of time, and increased client pressure and complaints. The difficult message with this is that a lot of it relates to not allowing clients into the practice building.
“Working in a socially distant manner is adding time to the average consult and taking its toll on team resources, with the whole process being less efficient. In the face of normal – and even increasing – workloads, teams are exhausted just trying to keep up.”
She added: “Vets are reporting that clients are struggling to understand why they are being kept outside of the practice when they are allowed into cafes, restaurants and shops, and for longer than the average consult. This is leading to increasing client frustration and complaints, which land on teams that are exhausted, therefore compounding the impact of the whole pandemic on everyone’s mental health.”
Ms Dos Santos added that while allowing clients back into practices might not be appropriate for everyone, now is the time for practices to review their social distancing policies.
She said: “As with every step of managing COVID-19, decisions have to be appropriate for businesses and teams. It may be that continuing to keep clients outside is the best option for your team or workplace and you have the logistical capacity to manage it. We know some teams have already made arrangements to bring clients inside safely.
Ms Dos Santos added: “But with the levels of burnout already occurring, winter on the horizon, and the fact we need to learn to work with the virus in the longer term, I am urging teams to come together and reassess what would be best for them. Teams need to decide if the impact on mental health can be minimised with new ways of working, or whether the perceived risk of virus transmission from clients is still too significant to make changes.
“If new ways of working are to be considered, now is the time to do it. There’s still time to trial new ideas, rather than finding yourself in a situation where you are forced to undertake a change that simply doesn’t work for the team or business.”
Ms Dos Santos added that while there are fears of a second spike, COVID-19 and the risks it poses are now far better understood than they were at the start of the crisis, and that another six months of working in the same way may not be tenable.
Ms Dos Santos said: “…my biggest fear for our profession now is not the virus itself, but the mental health impact it is having on us all. As we look to the future, we must acknowledge the way we are currently working is taking its toll and is not something we can sustain for another six months.
“With winter coming, shorter and darker days will not only have an impact on our moods, but also on our current ways of working.”
