Review of Rural Veterinary Services

The review of Australia's rural veterinary services was commissioned in 2003 to examine the role, availability and capability of rural veterinarians to meet Australia's future animal health needs.

The review reached three broad conclusions:

• Australia's rural veterinary services are meeting our current public and private animal health needs. However, these services will need to be enhanced to meet future livestock producer and public needs.
  
  
• Rural veterinarians are meeting the production needs of livestock producers, but lifestyle issues and the generally low returns significantly affect the retention of practitioners in rural areas. This has implicaitons for the network and infrastructure of rural veterinary services.
  
  
• The review finds policies that will build up the demand for veterinary services will be the most effective in the long term, rather than those that concentrate on supply.

Download the Government Response to the the Review of Australia's Rural Veterinary Services PDF [100 KB] Word[139 KB]