More than 250,000 Australians don’t have access to a vet – new research

Imagine walking your dog on a warm summer day. They’ve just run off the path to sniff in some long grass, maybe eat some kangaroo poo. Suddenly, there is a yelp and you see a snake slither away. With panic rising, you realise the clock is now ticking to get your dog to the vet.

However, you live more than an hour’s drive from the local vet. If you live along the coast of Queensland, and the snake was a coastal taipan, your dog might be dead before you even get to the vet.

You, like more than 250,000 other Australians, live in a veterinary care desert.

In new research published in the Australian Veterinary Journal, colleagues and I map exactly where those care deserts are in Australia.

This isn’t just a problem in an emergency. Research in both human and animal health shows people are less likely to seek preventative care if they live more than an hour from services, and their health suffers because of it.

Vets aren’t just for pets

We found the Northern Territory to be the worst-affected jurisdiction, with more than 20% of the population living in a care desert. Additionally, rural and regional areas, particularly those with large First Nations populations, were significantly underserved.

To map these areas, we used openly available data from sources such as Overture Maps, Google Places, OpenStreetMap and Global Human Settlement Layer. Using public data means these methods can be applied anywhere in the world to find similar gaps in care.

It’s not surprising Australia has numerous veterinary care deserts scattered across the country.

Our large land mass and uneven population spread makes accessing veterinary care genuinely challenging, and we’re not alone. Similar countries such as Canada have found veterinary care deserts increase inequity among human populations, risk animal welfare and threaten biosecurity.

This is because veterinarians don’t just treat pets and livestock. They act as early alert systems, detecting the first signs of exotic or emergency animal diseases.

They also help treat wildlife, often for free, and play an active role in preventing food-borne diseases.

Following the money

However, unlike Canada, the Australian veterinary industry primarily operates within a free market.

Partly in response to the inaccessibility of veterinary services in certain areas, several Canadian provincial governments have developed schemes to support rural veterinary clinics.

These schemes help subsidise travel to remote areas, or partially pay the cost of veterinary care for rural landholders. However, in Australia, with the exception of a few relatively minor schemes such as NABSnet, the veterinary industry is not subsidised.

This means veterinary clinics open where there are enough paying customers – generally in towns with populations greater than 5,000 people. Many of our veterinary care deserts were identified in towns smaller than this figure, or in extremely remote or low socioeconomic regions.

Not a petty issue

What is the answer then? It seems likely that without market intervention, accessibility to veterinary services will worsen. This is due to a number of factors.

Ageing rural practitioners, challenges associated with rural living and the decreasing use of veterinarians by the livestock industry all contribute.

Solutions must focus on improving equity and accessibility. Selecting from, and training in, rural areas could see more vets work there.

Innovations such as telemedicine might also help, by reducing the tyranny of distance. Alternatively, councils and state governments could explore subsidies for rural veterinary services, similar to those used in Canada, the United States, New Zealand or the United Kingdom.

Our research shows it’s possible to determine where the most severe shortages of veterinarians lie in Australia, and around the world.

While researchers can continue to track the accessibility of veterinary services over time, and model the impact of any shortages, it’s up to policy makers to decide if the accessibility of veterinary services is a public policy issue.

It’s certainly an animal health and welfare issue – and one that many other countries around the world have decided is important enough to tackle.