ROLE OF VETERINARIANS QUERIED

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 10

ROLE OF VETERINARIANS QUERIED

IN a recent address to the southern branch of the New Zealand Veterinary Association the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Taiboys, had some questions to ask about the future role of veterinarians in New Zealand. He referred to the possible use of lay personnel to carry out routine tasks, which would release trained veterinarians for more important jobs. “I ask myself, ‘is the veterinary profession contributing its best skills in spite of its never-ending involvement in Tb testing and brucellosis vaccination?’ ” asked the Minister. “Do these two particular jobs demand a high degree of professional ability? "In this context I look at other countries and other professions. I note with interest the development of lay tech-

nical assistance in the United Kingdom veterinary services and the proposals now under study to employ lay assistants in practice. “From time to time I compare the activities of your profession with closely allied professions and cannot help but notice the extensive use the medical and dental professions make of trained technicians. “Can the veterinary profession in our expanding pastoral economy adapt itself to the need for whole farm veterinary service and for the complex veterinary problems which invariably attend the increase in livestock production? “Can you meet the challenge of a rapidly expanding

technology and carry the routine burden of routine Tb testing, especially when the stage is rapidly being reached when tuberculosis is virtually eradicated from many of our herds. “If we look at three major diseases—tuberculosis, brucellosis and leptospirosis—the eradication and maintenance of freedom . from these diseases will demand countless millions of repetitive tests and sampling which could condemn the younger members of the profession to be occupied with these routine, repetitive activities every day of their life. “I ask myself—‘was it for this you went to university for five years?’. “Could you possibly meet the challenges of the present and the future in such routine activities?” Mr Taiboys asked. i