Vet shortages approaching crisis point amid government delays

A recruitment crisis in the vet industry in Cayman is putting animals and businesses at risk.

The hiring challenges have been compounded by government’s failure to re-appoint the Veterinary Board when members’ term limits expired at the end of January.

That has meant applications to bring new professionals to the island appear to have been on hold since then. And the bureaucratic backlog comes at a time when the need for veterinary professionals is greater than ever.

One vet surgery, Kman Vets, announced this week that it was moving to reduced hours and cancelling surgeries to cope with a chronic shortage in staff.

The clinic has had new recruits in place since May, waiting in the UK. It has to pay them salary to avoid losing their services as they await final sign-off on their credentials before they can start work. 

Everything is in place, except for the rubber stamp of the vet board, whose remit includes verifying medical credentials. However, the board’s tenure expired and local vets have been told that no new board was appointed and their applications for staff cannot be processed.

A missive from the Department of Agriculture, seen by the Compass, confirms this.

“Until such time as the Board is properly constituted there is no person / entity who can take decisions with respect to applications for registration,” Brian Crichlow, the Department of Agriculture director wrote in an email to one business.

The government gazettes reveal that the last board’s tenure was scheduled to expire on 31 Jan. of this year.

The Compass filed questions on the issue with the Ministry of Agriculture and has not received a response. We understand that, after those questions were submitted, and amid increasing frustration and pressure from impacted businesses, a new board was approved by Cabinet last week – more than six months after the last one was dissolved.

But there has still been no movement on processing applications.

Difficult recruitment environment

Colin Manson of Kman Vets said the issue compounded an already difficult recruitment environment.

He said Cayman’s cost of living made it almost impossible to recruit qualified vets and nurses, without subsidising housing or vehicle allowances.

Even with that, he said it was tough to get good, experienced, qualified people to come to work in Cayman and there are relatively few people with the right qualifications locally that are not already employed.

He said he had put paperwork in for a new vet and a new vet nurse in May, after an extensive recruitment process.

Despite frequent requests for updates with the vet board, he was only told recently that the board had, in fact, been dissolved.

“It is incredibly frustrating. It takes three or four months to recruit and [Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman] won’t process the permit applications until the vet board has licensed them. No one has given any indication of when it will be dealt with.”

He said he had inquired through numerous channels and been repeatedly told it was not possible for the new vets or nurses to be licensed to operate in Cayman without the approval of the board.

Cutting back on hours

Even with the indication last week that Cabinet has, apparently, approved a new board, he said he had reluctantly taken the decision to reduce hours of operation and cancel some non-emergency surgeries.

“We don’t have enough people to scrub in,” he said.

Once new staff are in place, he said, the surgery would look to move back to normal business hours. But the recruitment challenges continue, amid an expanding workload for all private vets, caring for a growing number of animals on island.

“It is not just us that are struggling,” said Manson.

“We saw such an increase in the population and an increase in pet ownership on island after COVID. There aren’t enough vets and there aren’t enough veterinary nurses.

“The cost of living makes it so challenging to recruit anyway, but once you have done all that work and spent all that money to find the right people, it is so frustrating to have a problem like this and to not be able to get any answers.”

The impacts of the issue go beyond Kman Vets.

Animal welfare risk

The Cayman Islands Equestrian Foundation has been using the same expert equine vet for 10 years.

But because the vet board hasn’t met, his licence has not been renewed and he is not cleared, currently, to work in Cayman.

“How long are they going to take to sort this out? It is now a welfare issue because if we have an emergency there is no equine vet on island to deal with it,” said Mary Alberga, president of the foundation and owner of the Equestrian Centre in George town.

The foundation collectively funds a vet to fly in for more complex cases. As well as the lack of emergency cover, she said, there was a waiting list mounting for more minor ailments and general upkeep of sports horses.

Between the riding schools, the tourism businesses and privately owned ponies and horses, there are more than 100 animals on island that are currently without proper care, she said.

“All we’ve been told is the licence has expired and they don’t know when they can grant a new one.”

She said there was no question that the individual was not properly qualified, given that he has been coming to Cayman for a decade and has had his credentials checked and verified annually.

Similarly, Manson said the people he was seeking to hire were qualified through the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

“There’s no question that they are qualified. It is a paperwork processing issue.”

Manson said he was keen not to be in conflict with government, but needed the clinic’s clients to know that it had done all it could to maintain its level of service.

“We have lots of lovely clients who value our efforts as a key part of the Cayman community.

“We see it as our duty and responsibility to be there for our clients when they need us, but we are only human and are already stretched to our limits. I have a duty of care to my colleagues and myself too. This is not a decision that we wanted to make.”