Wild Coast Vet may be the fastest-growing animal health provider in the province.
From small beginnings in a renovated Chintsa West dairy parlour in 2017, the mixed animal practice today has a presence in Chintsa, Crossways and Stirling.
Its success, according to unashamedly biased founder Dr Roger Davies, is based on compassion, caring, communication and service.
Davies, who trained and qualified in the UK, grew up on a small sheep farm in Devon.
“I relocated to SA for the simple reason that I followed the woman who became my wife.”
After practicing in Gonubie for a while, he and colleague Dr Michaela Randall decided to start Wild Coast Vet.
The Stirling premises — which includes a retail section — will likely end their expansion drive.
“We don’t want to spread ourselves too thin and become managers more than vets,” Davies explained.
“We offer a wide range of services: consultations, ambulance services, hospitalisation, soft tissue and orthopaedic surgery, dentistry, radiology and ultrasound.”
In addition to small animals, they carry out large animal and game capture work.
“Demand for our services is growing and at Stirling, which we opened in 2021, we deal with nearly 50 animals or owners a day.”
A huge challenge is a drastic shortage of qualified veterinarians.
Though this is a global concern, Davies says the main reason for the local shortage is that young professionals have little incentive to stay.
About half of the graduates from Onderstepoort, SA’s only training facility, leave the country to take up an overseas position each year.
Also, many foreign vets who might want to work in SA are put off by the requirement to do a year of community service, which is often in a deep rural area.
“We have three doctors at Stirling but need four.
“Finding the right recruit is difficult because, aside from being an excellent doctor, a candidate must embrace service — our ethos, which demands a certain quality of person.”
Davies says excellence and a strong sense of community start from the top.
“As directors, we embody it, and so do our 16 staff members.
We all have a passion for animals and we lead from the front
“We all have a passion for animals and we lead from the front.
“It’s about communication with our clients, and keeping them up to date with their pets’ condition.”
He is the only male vet at WCV, and has some interesting views on the growing number of women in the field.
“Well, this work is wrapped up in compassion, and caring is common among women.
“Also, after qualifying and working for a while, many women become mothers, and their families come first.
“The result is that many women prefer to work part-time. Financial considerations often play a smaller part in their home circumstances.”
Davies says only about 5% of their clients have pet medical insurance.
Surprisingly, he adds, it is a facility that has been around for more than 100 years.
Swedish company Länsförsäkrings Alliance issued the first policy in 1890. Britain followed in 1947.
Genric Pet Insurance analysis of claims reveals that “mega” claims of R15,000 and over are growing.
Vet medicine matches human medicine in sophistication and cost of equipment.
Since about 2010, more companies — many of them offshoots of traditional medical aids — have added pet cover to their portfolios.
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