Vets welcome upcoming council amid manpower, mental health challenges in sector

INDUSTRY players expect the new regulatory body for Singapore’s vet sector to raise professional standards and provide legislative teeth against errant players.

They also hope the new council will take steps to improve working conditions for vets, and thus alleviate ongoing challenges in manpower and mental health, they told The Business Times (BT).

Announced on Oct 13, the veterinary council is set to be established by 2025 as a professional body under the National Parks Board (NParks). It will be a welcome addition to the local scene, said Singapore Veterinary Association president Chow Haoting.

“We can have a more robust structure for the industry, and increase standards – which also comes with building a more resilient workforce,” Dr Chow told BT.

Vets are currently licensed and regulated by NParks’ Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS). The new council will take over this responsibility, though AVS will continue to license and regulate vet clinics and animal-related businesses.

The council will maintain a registry of vet professionals and the activities that they are allowed to carry out. It will accredit vet training programmes and set out continuing education requirements.

It will also develop and review sectoral standards to provide greater clarity on the ethics and standards required of practitioners, as well as investigate cases of professional misconduct and take enforcement action.

About 1,000 to 1,500 vet professionals – vets, vet nurses and technicians – are expected to fall under the council’s purview.

On manpower and mental health

Apart from regulation, vets hope the new council will address industry-wide challenges.

These include the problem of non-vets doing the work of vets, such as performing cosmetic surgery on ornamental fishes. Dr Chow hopes the council will address this with its regulatory powers: “Unfortunately, without legislation and without strong, robust laws, there are limitations. Right now, we have zero control (over them).”

Another issue is a lack of manpower, which forces existing vets, vet nurses and technicians to work longer and more irregular hours, Dr Chow said. This labour shortage is related to the mental health issues with which many vets struggle, he added.

These issues, in turn, stem primarily from poor treatment by pet owners, who sometimes have unrealistic expectations and take their frustrations out on vets, those working in the sector told BT.

“It boils down to how pet owners verbally – or physically – abuse us,” said Evonne Yong, head veterinary technician at The Animal Clinic.

Temasek Polytechnic (TP) lecturer Quah Xin Jie noted that the expectations of pet owners in a vet clinic are “very different from what they would expect if they were to go into a human clinic”.

As medical bills for pets are not subsidised, pet owners typically pay out of pocket for vet services. Bills can run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars. As a result, pet owners “demand a higher quality of service”, said Yong.

“If there’s an emergency case that comes in and the vet is dealing with it, we will get a blasting from those with an appointment (who then have to wait),” she added.

The mental health struggles of vets, vet nurses and technicians are exacerbated by the fact that they deal with patient death on a regular basis. Vet professionals handle chronic, end-stage diseases regularly, said Dr Chow: “We deal with death on an almost daily basis.”

The emotional toll results in many vet professionals leaving the industry, contributing to the ongoing manpower shortage, he added: “The turnover rate within the industry is high. It’s more of an input-output problem: you are pouring water into the pail, but there are holes in it.”

The number of licensed vets in Singapore has multiplied from 121 in 2006 to 542 as of May, said NParks in a release about the council. But the number of pets has also risen – especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw a spike in pet ownership, said Dr Chow.

While there are no statistics on total pet ownership in Singapore, the number of licensed dogs rose to about 87,000 in 2022, from 70,000 in 2019, based on AVS data.

Vet supply is also constricted because there are no relevant educational pathways at the university level in Singapore. Yet a university degree is required to obtain a vet licence from AVS.

This means that aspiring vets have to go overseas – typically to the UK or Australia – for their degrees, said Dr Chow, who received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Melbourne in 2015.

This can cost about S$500,000 for a typical six-year programme, including accommodation and living costs, he added.

Aspiring vet Claris Lee, a final-year student in TP’s Diploma in Veterinary Technology programme, is keenly aware of the challenges in the industry – not least after an internship at a clinic – but still hopes to pursue further studies in the UK or Australia.

“During my internship, there were always good days and bad days, (and) dealing with pet owners is sometimes really quite frustrating, and it did make me reconsider,” she said.

“But for me, the goal at the end of the day is to make sure that their pet is feeling better.”