04/15/2024
I rarely pay close attention to social media discussions, but I feel this one was important to address.
Over the weekend, a post was made “shaming” Lake area veterinarians for not being available 24 hrs to see emergencies. I struggle to understand why our profession is held to a different standard than human medicine. I am most certainly not able to contact my primary care physician at 2 AM and ask them to come in to see me. Why are we not only expected, but “shamed” when we don’t come in after hours after working a grueling 10-12 hour shift?
This mentality is exactly why the su***de rate in our profession is so high. We recently lost 2 colleagues in one week!
I personally choose to still take calls and come in after hours as I can, and despite my staff being exhausted, they will always say yes when I ask them to help. But it’s not possible to be available for every after hours emergency.
If your veterinarian is no longer taking calls after hours, it’s not because they don’t care, they just simply can no longer keep up. Even 24 hour ER clinics have had to close because they are so overwhelmed, I think that speaks volumes about how overwhelmed and understaffed many Veterinary hospitals have become!
I do believe the Lake area is busy enough now to need an urgent care service, but those of us working an 80 hour work week simply cannot shoulder this responsibility. Many of your veterinarians and their staff have children and a family and I will always preach to my team how important a healthy work/life balance is.
We simply need more doctors and support staff to provide an urgent care or ER service here. Even sharing after hours care between Lake area veterinary hospitals is a significant strain on the doctors and their staff.
So to those who “shame” my fellow veterinarians and their staff for not being available 24/7, I say shame on you. We are doing our best every single day.
-Dr. Kunz
