July 11, 2022

Dear veterinary colleagues:

As many of you know, the WCVM Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC) has experienced a growing demand for small animal emergency and critical care services in the past 12 months. It has become increasingly challenging for our existing clinical team to safely manage the larger caseload — especially overnight when we have limited staff available.  

The VMC is seeking additional clinical team members for the hospital’s emergency and critical care service. But, as many of you have experienced first-hand, it has been challenging to recruit and hire new staff during a time when veterinary professionals are in record demand across the country.

Over the past six months, we have managed this situation of higher caseloads and limited staff by temporarily reducing the hospital’s overnight emergency and critical care services over short periods of time — two to three nights at the most. However, after much discussion, our leadership team has decided that we must temporarily reduce the hospital's overnight emergency and critical care services for an extended period of one month during the summer.

From Friday, July 15, to Monday, August 15, the VMC's emergency and critical care service will only accept small animal patients that are considered in the "red zone" (a life-threatening condition) between the hours of 12 a.m. and 7 a.m. each night. 

If animal owners call or bring their animals to the veterinary teaching hospital during this period and their pets' condition is considered urgent or non-urgent (orange and yellow zones in chart below), VMC staff will advise them to contact their regular veterinary clinic for emergency care or to return to the VMC at 8 a.m. the following morning.

By temporarily restricting emergency admissions each night, our goal is to ensure that the hospital's limited clinical staff will be able to provide high-quality care for in-patients and still manage incoming animals that are seriously ill or injured. 

This has been a difficult decision to make, but after reviewing our current options, we're in agreement that we must act to ensure the quality of health care that we provide to our patients as well as the health and well-being of our clinical team members. 

In preparation, we ask that you and your clinic’s teams review the information below and help us to inform pet owners about their options for emergency and critical care services.    

• Alert your clients. From July 15 to Aug. 15, please do not advise your clients to bring their pets to the VMC for overnight emergency care unless their animals are critically ill or injured ("red zone" in chart below). 
• If you have clients whose pets are experiencing major health issues, please tell them in advance about the temporary restriction of overnight admissions at the VMC's emergency and critical care service. 
• Overnight call. If possible, please organize and provide emergency call for your veterinary clinic's clients overnight during this time period. 
• VMC's message to owners. If owners call or bring their animals to the veterinary teaching hospital during this period and their pets' condition is considered urgent or non-urgent (orange and yellow zones in chart below), VMC staff will advise them to contact their regular veterinary clinic for emergency care or to return to the WCVM Veterinary Medical Centre at 8 a.m. the following morning. 
• Phone triage. For an emergency, VMC clinical team members will be available by phone (306-966-7126) overnight to consult with animal owners about next steps. 
• Follow @WCVMToday for the latest updates. Besides direct email messages to our referring veterinarian community, we always post the latest VMC clinical service updates to social media. Your veterinary clinic is welcome to follow @WCVMToday on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

Thank you for your understanding — we greatly appreciate your support and your feedback as we strive to meet the needs of animal owners and the veterinary community. If you have any questions or concerns about our plans, please contact me. 

Steve Manning, DVM, MSc, DACT
Associate Dean, Clinical Programs
Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM)
stephen.manning@usask.ca | 306-966-7109