Future of SPCA hospital in Sydney in jeopardy due to on-call rules

The Nova Scotia SPCA is the latest organization looking for changes to the regulations that govern veterinarians.

The organization opened a veterinary hospital in Sydney last summer to provide preventative care to pets unable to be seen at local clinics. The hospital provided spaying, neutering, vaccinations, and flea and tick prevention.

However, the future of the animal hospital is now uncertain after it lost an agreement with another nearby clinic that was providing the hospital with after-hours emergency coverage — a service clinics are legally required to provide.

"It's really overwhelming for the veterinarians to provide after-hours care because not only are you working all day, but then you need a veterinarian who's on call all night, every weekend on holidays," said Kyla Wuhr, director of veterinary services for the Nova Scotia SPCA. "It just became too much."

In Nova Scotia, vet clinics must provide after-hours emergency care 24 hours a day. In order to fulfil that duty, they are able to partner with another clinic up to 80 kilometres away.

The clinic that pulled out of the shared services agreement with the SPCA is owned by a company called VetStrategy. The vet doing the on-call work for the SPCA was also sharing his time between three VetStrategy clinics.

"We deeply regret having to terminate our on-call coverage agreement with the SPCA," said Marsha White, regional director of operations for Vet Strategy's Atlantic branch. "We recently experienced unexpected challenges with staffing, resulting in the inability to fulfil our commitment."

It is not the first agreement the company has had to end due to staffing issues. VetStrategy also dropped its agreement with independent clinic Celtic Creatures, prompting the owner to ask the Nova Scotia Veterinary Medical Association for an exemption to the on-call regulations, which it was denied.

The SPCA hospital only has part-time staff and is unable to provide the after-hours care 24/7.

Looking for an exemption

The Nova Scotia SPCA requested an exemption to the distance part of the regulation after finding a clinic in Halifax willing to take Cape Breton pet owners in an emergency.

Wuhr was hopeful since the hospital only performs limited services, but the request was denied.

Now the organization wants to see the veterinary association drop the regulations on distance altogether for the sake of rural veterinarians.

SPCA spokesperson Sarah Lyon said the organization is concerned that the on-call issue will not get dealt with until October, when the veterinary association holds its annual general meeting. 

"They don't have to wait five months to start to deal with this current veterinary industry crisis," Lyon said. "We need to be talking about it now."

Veterinary association president Jeremy Orr said he is not part of the committee that reviews requests for exemptions, but he believes the decision to deny the request was based on the distance pet owners would have to drive in an emergency.

"The facility to provide after-hours care has to be within a reasonable distance for the public," said Orr.

Orr said the veterinary association is working on the workforce shortage and has invited veterinary professionals from across the province to take part in a planning session next weekend.

If there is a motion to change the rules, he said it would still have to take place at the annual meeting.

In the meantime, Lyon said Wuhr and a group of Halifax veterinarians will be in Cape Breton over the weekend to hold a vaccine clinic. Beyond that, it's unclear whether the Sydney hospital will be able to continue operating.