Opinion

Today started with me staring into the abyss of the recruitment crisis. Just where are all the vets hiding? I thought we would try advertising abroad so had a look at the South African Vet Association…

Last summer, my holiday, if you can call it that, was spent in Chernobyl looking at wild rodents to see whether they had radiation-induced cataracts. They didn’t! A couple of years earlier, a paper in…

Veterinary work is full of decision making. A typical shift is filled with quick-fire decisions involving patients, sometimes with complex complaints and multiple stakeholders. What is the best way of…

I have just returned from a week-long CPD trip. Not for me, but for my daughter, who has GCSE Spanish looming. As a supreme act of educational investment, the whole family went off to Mallorca on a Sp…

Profit is a necessity and an admirable goal of all practices, so why does it often make us feel uncomfortable? Talking about money opens a can of worms when we consider balancing a caring public servi…

One thing that can keep you going through difficult days is a sense of humour. Many stressful and apparently bleak situations can have a humorous side if viewed from just the right oblique angle. Laug…

What a sweet sight – sitting there munching a nut from last autumn before spotting me, then scampering off and heading up a tree trunk deftly to leap from one branch to another as it speeds away. And …

Locum, locum everywhere and not an employed vet to find. How close is this to the future reality of the veterinary workforce? The current recruitment and retention crisis facing the veterinary profess…

The world and vets’ working lives have changed hugely over the last few decades. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that our patients are very inconsiderate in choosing which day and at wha…

A few years ago, I went to a college reunion celebrating 25 years since the first admission of women. I sat next to a professor of clinical medicine in her later years, who had qualifications and acco…

I am feeling reasonably optimistic that the anti-vaccine movement may finally be being brought to task in the public eye. I know I am preaching to the converted, but I thought a quick review of recent…

Summer must be nearly here; though as I write, it’s still mid-April, on my regular walk this weekend, I heard the sheer glory of a skylark’s song and saw one hovering high above me. If you have a devi…

Patient care is uppermost in our minds when at work; it is what we are all about and why we go to work. Our practices have advanced in kit and facilities over the years and veterinary surgeon and nurs…

Nearly two decades into the new millennium and my kids have dragged me into the 21st century by buying me an iPhone for Christmas and helping me set up an Instagram account. (Follow me, if you feel th…

We are living in a prolonged period of political uncertainty, the scale of which many of us have never experienced before. Within our industry, the potential wide-reaching implications include effects…

A long-standing follower of mine on Twitter sent me a direct message a few days after Crufts. A friend of his had announced that having watched the show, she had decided to get either a miniature Dach…

“Daddy… Daddy! Can we ask you a question?” asked my three sons 15 years ago, when they were seven, five and three years old. “What would you like us to be when we grow up?” Well, that was easy. “Happy…

To keep the public happy all the time is an impossible task. We all know that, but still get affected by complaints, grumbles and social media diatribes. People are now more likely to publicise their …

It is important that you minimise the gaps between expectations and experience to boost customer satisfaction

What is seen, heard and felt are the most important factors driving clients’ opinions of a practice