Whatever happened to house calls?

Authors: Patchett G
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 33, Issue 11, pp 181, Nov 1985
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: General
Subject Terms: Veterinary profession
Article class: General Article

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Abstract:

To the televiewer of the eighties, the expression “house call” in a veterinary context surely conjures up a James Herriot type dropping in for a quick examination of the family pet in the kitchen, followed by a nice cup of tea, or something stronger. When reality enters the picture that thirties-inspired romanticism flies out the window, and the clinical practitioner has a problem with an aggrieved client, who longs for the good old days. Reality in metropolitan companion animal practice means that house calls are usually totally uneconomical, and are provided only for clients with special problems or as a limited public relations effort. Even the good old days do not stand a close look in New Zealand. Sure, the city practitioners of the time did house calls, but even as recently as the early sixties how very few there were relative to the population in New Zealand, or even to the veterinary population of the time. Historically in New Zealand, small-animal practice did not really develop until the late sixties. The clinical practitioner was a genuine GP, attending all species from a mobile clinic, which was the back of a car or station wagon. The clinics were largely communication centres and trading posts at which, on specified occasions, a veterinarian attended to small animal medicine and surgery as a sideline to the rest of the practice…

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