Overseas interest big to fill 50 veterinary places, but MIQ a challenge

The New Zealand Veterinary Association said it had had great interest from overseas veterinarians who wanted to come here to address the labor shortage.

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Last month, the government announced that 50 general practitioners, excluding the border, would be allowed into the country, provided they have two to three years of experience and earn at least $ 85,000 a year.

The association’s executive director, Kevin Bryant, said they had a good process with the Department of Basic Industries and Immigration to process the visas.

“We have our first 10 people at various stages of visa approval and are bound by those 10 people, we have three spouses and three relatives.

“We have all of these people in the pipeline. But we have a process where we submit names to the MPI every week and then to Immigration, so the people are just like the people who meet the criteria for inclusion are.” their immigrant visa process. So at some point we will run all 50 through the system, but of course not all at once.

Applicants are from the UK, Australia, South Africa and the US, but they are struggling to get places at the MIQ, which is fully booked for the next several months.

“Like everyone at the time these 50 were approved, we didn’t know MIQ was full until Christmas. So this is a challenge.

“We hope to be able to negotiate with MIQ so that we have a small number of people who come in one fell swoop. We have a small number of people that we should reach out to share some places with these people, “said Bryant.

He said that when the 50 vets arrive in the country they will go a long way to help the sector which is very understaffed.

“We have situations where vets are burned out, we have customers who have to wait longer than normal to see a vet due to staff shortages and clinics, and people have to work longer.” Hours to try to keep track of things.

“So it’s an ongoing situation and bringing in overseas workers won’t solve it on its own, but it will certainly help.”