10/11/2026
Have you ever thought about what happens when your pet needs care afterhours in Canberra?
This past week, we've had several complaints from clients as to why there was only 1 vet in the hospital working, or why they had to wait 2 hours for care, or even why we didn't have avian specialists available on a Sunday.
During business hours on a weekday, there are roughly 120-180 veterinarians working across 40ish clinics in the Canberra region.
After 7pm? There are often only 3-4.
These veterinarians are treating the sickest animals - tick paralysis, snake bites, car accidents, diabetic crisis, sepsis. They are often juggling multiple emergencies, dozens of hospitalised patients and numerous waiting consultations.
The low number of veterinarians available in our hospitals after hours isn't a choice. There just aren't that many vets able or willing to work afterhours - our industry operates differently to human hospitals and we don't have a pipeline of JMOs, RMOs and registrars lined up to work nights and weekends like Canberra's human hospitals.
If we could put more vets on afterhours, we would. For context, this past week our Director worked 80 hours covering shifts to ensure the hospital could stay open.
In these circumstances, when vets are thin on the ground, we have two choices - either shut the hospital, or work with 1 vet who is doing absolutely everything they can to see your pet as quickly as possible, while ensuring everyone still gets a high standard of care.
Ultimately we believe it's better to do what we can, rather than close our doors and send everyone to Sydney as the next closest afterhours facility.
Please be kind. And understand we are doing everything we can to see your pet as quickly as possible.
A huge shout out to the amazing work done every night at Animal Emergency Service Canberra and Animal Referral Hospital Canberra who work so hard to ensure Canberra and surrounds pets get emergency care 365 days a year.
