Vets and veterinary nurses reinstated to South Africa’s critical skills list

Veterinarians and veterinary nurses have been reinstated to South Africa’s critical skills list with effect from October – after having been removed from the list in February, 2022.

“We are delighted to share this good news,” stated Dr Nandipha Ndudane, president of the veterinary statutory body the South African Veterinary Council (SAVC).

“This much-needed amendment to the critical skills list will help address the dire shortage of veterinarians and veterinary nurses in South Africa. It is much simpler to apply for a critical skills permit than a work permit – making it easier for foreign vets to work in South Africa. This will also assist with food safety and security in South Africa, as more veterinarians will be available to help farmers keep livestock healthy,” she added.

According to Ndudane, the SAVC is ready to issue the required scarce skills letters to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) upon request of qualifying foreign veterinarians and veterinary nurses looking to work in South Africa.

The reinstatement also means that veterinarians from the United Kingdom and Australasia who are permitted to practice in South Africa without having to write SAVC exams (due to mutual recognition agreements) will more easily be granted permits to work here. These veterinarians will have to perform a year’s compulsory community service through the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development once they have registered with the SAVC.

The reinstatement of veterinarians to the critical skills list will further assist foreign students studying veterinary science at the University of Pretoria (UP) to complete their one-year compulsory community service, allowing them to remain and practice in the country.

South Africa has 60 to 70 vets per million citizens, far below the international norm of 200 to 400 vets per million. The SAVC’s records show that about 150 veterinarians are leaving the country annually while only about 160 qualify each year from UP – the only faculty in South Africa that offers studies in veterinary science.

“While work is being done to motivate for the establishment of additional faculties offering veterinary science qualifications and to implement strategies to retain veterinary professionals, the SAVC believes this positive step taken by the DHA will go a long way in mitigating South Africa’s veterinary skills deficit,” concluded Ndudane.

Dr Michael Sutton, a local vet at Muldersdrift Animal Clinic explained that: “Vets play a crucial role in our country’s food security. Number one, food production and food security are going to be one of the biggest challenges going forward with our population growing. To have a healthy supply of food for people that is not going to cause them harm vets play a critical role in the monitoring of abbatoirs meat that gets put out to the public. Vets are directly and indirectly involved in making sure that meat is safe for people.”

He continued that vets play an important role in the import and export of livestock in and out of the country.

“Like, now, with the avian flu and winter, our state veterinarians are there to monitor and ensure that the poultry and eggs that people are getting are edible, and there’s no infectious diseases around.”

“So from that point of view, those are the types of things that people don’t think of when they think of a veterinarian’s role. They think we just treat puppies and kittens and that kind of thing, but the food security side of things is just as important. You know, and we help our local communities with rescuing and making sure that the animals are treated and looked after. Vets also play a crucial role in welfare cases. When people abuse animals, vets are expert witnesses,” he added.

“Something else that people don’t think of when they think of vets are communicable diseases, diseases that can originate in animals and can be transferred to humans and rabies is the first one that comes to mind. So from a legal point of view, it’s only a disease that is required by law to be vaccinated against. So we play a crucial role in ensuring that those diseases are kept under control and in check, so that people aren’t exposed to them publicly, and it can have devastating consequences if we have outbreaks,” he explained.

“Enough people are applying for vet school, but there aren’t that many qualifying, and those that are qualifying are leaving for greener pastures because of working conditions, remuneration and that kind of thing, lifestyle, you know, all the factors that influence all of us here in South Africa. We are fortunate enough that overseas vets are highly in demand, but that leaves us with a huge problem here in private practice because we need young vets to work in practice and service our community. So it is extremely difficult to find young vets who want to stay and work in South Africa. So your private practice was being put under strain because there’s just not enough people working coming through and it affects our service delivery. And you know, there are a lot of vet practices that are downscaling and closing because you just don’t have enough vets. And the problem is, it goes back to the proportion of vets that are qualifying as well. Most of the newer candidates only want to practice with small animals.

“That’s lovely. But you know, there’s a there’s a huge demand for production animal vets, equine vets, which is a smaller proportion of the vets that are qualifying. So yeah, it’s not only the number of vets qualifying but it’s the vets that are qualifying which sector they want to practice in,” Sutton elaborated.

“The fact is that it’s a very rewarding profession to be in, obviously, but there’s a lot of times there are unrealistic expectations, and it becomes a lot more difficult when people don’t have the money to look after their pets so there’s a lot of stress placed on vets and it’s always the public’s perception that we must do things for free, and that kind of thing. And a lot of us do donate a lot of our time, our money, and stuff to help animals but we can’t do that to the detriment of our well-being. First of all our mental well-being, but also we need to make a living, we need to put food on the table, we need to provide for our families,” emphasised Sutton.