How the Future Vets campaign aims to widen access to the profession

The patient arrives. He is brought in to an adjoining room to begin the anaesthetic process. As the drugs start to take effect, he becomes visibly unsteady on his feet and then lies down, supported by the staff around him.

And then the crane is engaged. It has runners allowing it to slide along a bright-yellow girder attached to the ceiling, and looks more like something that a team of mechanics might use to move an engine into or out of a vehicle.

But this one isn’t moving objects, and it isn’t moving people either: it’s here to carry a horse to the operating table.

The team prepares their patient for surgery (Image: The Herald / Gordon Terris)

I’ve come to the University of Glasgow’s equine hospital, which is overseen by Professor Patrick Pollock. An expert in veterinary surgery and remote and rural medicine, he is also a key figure in educating the next generation of Scottish vets.

Most people would probably assume that, while the teaching side of that responsibility might be difficult, recruitment must be easy – there’s surely no shortage of people who want to be vets?

The reality is, as ever, more complicated, which is why Prof Pollock is supporting a new scheme called Future Vets that aims to open up routes into the profession and support those who wish to pursue what is, undoubtedly, an incredibly challenging goal.

But according to one of the founders, Dr Karen Gardiner, this isn’t just an issue for people like Prof Pollock to worry about: she says that we should all care about securing enough vets in Scotland, because pretty much every single one of us depends upon them in some way.

For pet owners the need is obvious, and the farming industry also relies upon access to veterinarians, but around a fifth of qualified vets going on to work for organisations such as drug development companies, the government, and abattoirs.

Dr Gardiner tells me that the UK currently has around 27,000 vets, but could need double that number by 2032 based on factors such as increasing pet ownership and changes in the farming sector. Brexit has also caused problem and, as in other sectors, pressures are particularly acute in rural areas and island communities.

Dr Gardiner outlines the campaign's approach to attracting and retaining more vets (Image: The Herald / Gordon Terris)

Unfortunately, there are a number of reasons why this target looks unlikely be met – at least without major changes.

First of all, Scotland has a very limited number of universities offering veterinary medicine degrees: those at Glasgow and Edinburgh are well-established, and another has just been launched by SRUC from their Aberdeen campus, but that’s it.

There can also be an issue with a lack of knowledge at school level amongst those advising students, as well as a whole range of class-based assumptions that lead to some young people thinking that becoming a vet is just not for people like them.

Even the entry requirements are an issue, restricting the possible pool of candidates in a way that has a greater impact on people from more deprived backgrounds. In fact, Professor Pollock tells me that the field is “crying out for a graduate apprenticeship programme” that could offer a transformational challenge to the status quo, and says that we need to “widen the funnel” of applicants.

Another of those involved with Future Vets is Joanna Wilson, a recent entrant to the profession.

“I wanted to be James Herriot,” she tells me with her smile, but her path was not straightforward.

She says that she had a “pretty rough time at school”, gaining the grades she needed after an appeal boosted two of her results. Arriving at university, she found that the jump was bigger than she had imagined, and after initially failing first year she even started to think that maybe this career wasn’t for her after all.

With support from Prof Pollock she did succeed, completing the course and moving on to her first job last year, but she has since learned first-hand just how tough it can be.

One of the biggest issues is the working hours which, she argues, wouldn’t be allowed in pretty much any other profession. This is compounded by the need to be on call, which comes with different pressures depending on whether someone is working in an urban or rural area, but inevitably takes a toll.

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“I’ve almost crashed my car going back from a call out,” she says, before adding that she knows people who have had serious accidents due to fatigue.

On top of that is the obvious emotional drain of being a vet. Anyone can understand how hard it must be to pursue a career because you love animals and then find yourself having to euthanise them, but it’s more than that, including hostile pet owners complaining about bills over which an individual vet has little, if any, control.

All of this perhaps helps to explain why the veterinary sector struggles to retain people, with as many as half reported to quit within a few years of graduating. Worse than that is the suicide rate, which is incredibly high.

There is, then, a lot of work to be done to open up and better support the veterinary profession, and the team behind Future Vets are eager to make a difference. Some of the ideas are big and eye-catching, but others are designed to achieve quieter but equally critical changes in the background.

One such initiative is the development of a work experience database. Finding these opportunities can make a big difference to those applying for university, but access is extremely uneven, so the hope is that by supporting more young people at this early stage they can boost the success rates in the longer term.

Dr Gardiner and Dr Wilson believe that raising awareness and opening access are crucial to the vet sector (Image: The Herald / Gordon Terris)

At the other end of the spectrum is the Future Vets camp, which gives dozens of teenagers a three-day, hands-on experience that provides “the opportunity to get a realistic insight to the veterinary world”. The 2024 edition was so successful that a 2025 version is already accepting applications.

Specific events for schools and for careers advisers have also been lined up to help spread the message, and the support, as far as possible, while primary schools across the country have also received books to help inspire children.

But raising awareness of the extreme challenges faced by vets, and the terrible outcomes they can lead to, is also critical. Dr Wilson tells me that they cannot “in good faith” push for more and more young people to go into the profession and ignore the factors driving burnout, dropout and people being driven to take their own lives. To that end, a pilot project with et practices which looks at the pressures on vets is about to begin.

A lot of effort will be needed to bring us back from a “cliff edge” most of us can’t even see; fortunately, the people driving Future Vets seem up for the challenge.

Find out more about Future Vets on their website.