A FORMER Barrow vet fears pet welfare in Furness will be ‘compromised significantly’ after veterinary practices cease their emergency out of hours services.

IVC Evidensia, which operates Grove Veterinary Centre, Alexander Vets and South Lakes vets, have announced that due to vet shortages, they can no longer provide the service at some of their South Cumbria practices.

This has caused deep concerns among pet-owners who have been advised by the company to travel more than an hour to Carnforth for their nearest out of hours treatment option.

At the moment, only Alexander Vets have announced that they are affected, while Grove bosses said its service will remain for the time being.

Simon Pudsey spent ten years working at Grove Veterinary Centre in Barrow before moving to Coventry in 2010.

The veterinary surgeon, who is originally from Kirkby, said it is ‘unreasonable’ to expect pet-owners to make a two hour round trip for out of hour emergency care.

“I find it quite sad that we’re in a situation where you have to go to Carnforth to get out of hours emergency care for your pet, which I do not think it an acceptable situation,” Mr Pudsey, who now works for Medivet, said.

“I don’t find it at all suitable that Carnforth is used as an alternative for Barrow.

“Barrow is of a sufficient size to have enough demand to meet the needs of an out of hours service.

“It’s not reasonable to make a two-hour roundtrip in any way, shape or form. It can’t be considered to be reasonable. I’m flabbergasted.

“I come to the area quite frequently, and if you get a hiccup on that A590, travel time goes up even more.

“I would encourage people to check with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons what their view on this is. It used to be that 30 minutes was considered a reasonable travel distance, beyond that would not be acceptable.”

Mr Pudsey said he believes a number of factors will have affected the halting of out of hours care, including a demand for vets.

“I know that’s what happened in Barrow is that, unfortunately, Church Walk and Alexander and Grove have all been purchased recently by large groups. This is something which is affecting the entire profession now,” he said.

“Independent vets are becoming thinner on the ground. When we had a whole section of independent vets, they would often work together for a mutual out of hours service but large groups don’t tend to co-operate with one another.

“Expanding can be very difficult too because getting hold of staff can be very difficult. Getting new vets is really hard to do. It was hard enough to attract vets to Furness ten years ago, let alone now.

“Unfortunately with Brexit, the number of European vets in the UK has really reduced.”

Mr Pudsey is most concerned with animal welfare in the area when practices cease out of hours services.

“What bothers me is animal welfare. My worry is long transit times – it’s not a good thing if pets are in pain or respiratory distress. There is genuinely a risk of death,” he said.

“If out of hours care is not provided properly, I think there’s a real risk that pet welfare in Furness could be compromised significantly.

“Ideally, one solution would be that the corporate groups which are currently in Furness to get together and work together, which is possible, and start working alongside one another to keep animal welfare going forwards.

“The other way forward is for someone else to set up an independent practice in the area and staff it and work alongside the other independents in the area.”

A spokesman for Grove Vets said: "We are still providing our own out of hours service at the moment. We will inform all of our clients of any changes as they occur. Please be kind to all veterinary professionals at this time."

A spokesman for IVC said: “The huge increase in pet ownership in the UK has put unprecedented pressure on vets and nurses, and there is a global shortage of qualified veterinary surgeons.

"This has put huge strain on our team, who continue to provide excellent care for local animals. We have tried for a year to recruit additional vets to our local practices, without success.

"As such, we have made the difficult decision to move some of our Out of Hours service for the area to Carnforth, but no decision has been made yet on all of our Out of Hours service in the area and we will continue to provide care locally through our available network of practices until 7th April.“