In February 2024, in the run-up to the MEP elections, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced the introduction of a new 'veterinary medicine' course to be run by MCAST - wanting to 'end this ugly reality in our country' where students need to move abroad to study this field.
This announcement was also linked to the re-opening of the animal hospital in Ta Qali as a training hospital, closed since August 2023, under the remit of MCAST. A popular move, no doubt, met with widespread approval and enthusiasm. Scepticism from those in the sector, however arose.
Any student wishing to enter this field will need to have an idea of what studying veterinary medicine entails and make sure that the education process will reach their expectations. We are often approached by parents who want some peace of mind that this investment in their children is a sound one. I will, therefore, shed some light on the matter.
The study of Veterinary medicine is a vast field of study, covering everything from small animal healthcare to epidemiology, one-health policy, farming, herd health, economics, law, animal sports medicine, equine medicine, nutrition and wildlife to name but a few. Courses for Veterinary Medicine are around 5.5 years long on average and carry a doctoral status. Veterinary medicine is also one of the most evolving fields of medicine in general, with a boom in research, new medical discoveries and implementations, requiring all vets to maintain a steady commitment to professional development throughout their careers.
All veterinary education establishments have at least a hospital running services for small animals, farm animals, equines and non-conventional animals. These hospitals participate in research programmes to allow the students to learn and master their craft and are fully equipped with the latest in diagnostics and treatment technology. They function as a referral centre for large areas with population densities numbering in the millions, and are therefore justified in their setup as there is sufficient caseload to allow for research and to be financially stable.
The majority of professors in a standard university setup would be board-certified specialists, publishing research material and are leading figures in their field.
Research programs are made available to budding undergraduates, who participate in such programs for their final dissertations and to gain experience. These programs also offer graduates and long-time practitioners an opportunity to specialise, further their skills and improve on the services they offer their patients. This is similar, in nature, to what happens in human medicine.
These structures are run mostly on research funding, tuition fees and nominal charges to clients who agree to be part of the research programs and trials in exchange for high end veterinary care. Malta does not have such an animal population density and any structure of the sort needed would be commercially unviable and the caseload too small for a research program. Malta has no proper teaching farms, stud-farms, teaching slaughterhouses or wildlife sanctuaries for students to have the facility to train and educate themselves.
Furthermore, the majority of veterinarians practicing in Malta have concentrated their careers in clinical practice, not academia. PhD level qualifications and board certification seldom make sense in a clinical setup where practice is given more priority. This makes human resources to run such a course difficult, if not impossible.
A whole infrastructure would need to be set up to run a course with a decent level of education and practice. Is this feasible, when admission is currently limited to 15 students per year? Do we risk having too many new graduate veterinarians with very little job opportunities in such a small market? Would the resources allocated be better suited to increase specialisations for already practicing vets in fields such as equine medicine, emergency and critical care and farm medicine amongst others, where a need is clearly felt in the local scene?
With this in mind, the hope of having a proper, established course for veterinary medicine quickly turns to concern. And while MCAST have been given concession of the ex-APH animal hospital in Ta Qali, running a facility capable of offering the training necessary for tomorrow's veterinarians to be capable and professional in their field remains challenging at best.
Why the Government would rush in a course of such magnitude remains unexplained. The Veterinary Surgeons' Council has yet to formally recognise this course as valid and leading to a warrant to practice veterinary medicine in Malta and the EU. And at the same time as this course was ushered in, the Government continued its funding for new veterinary students abroad through the Veterinary Studies Sponsorship Scheme run by the Education Ministry. Public consultation with entities such as the Malta Veterinary Association were done after the course was announced, were very limited in scope and mostly aimed at appeasing these concerns, with little success.
In passing the animal hospital to MCAST, it is also unclear what the main aim of the now defunct APH hospital will be. Would this facility be running as a public private partnership? What commercial interests will be introduced? Will it still cater for animal welfare cases?
Clearly, more vision and technical input is needed in this sector. We need veterinarians to be involved in the planning and decision making process, proper consultations with the various stakeholders and a serious approach to veterinary education in general, not a populist approach. As things stand, we risk turning the dreams of our students and youths into a nightmare.
Dr Andrew Agius is a veterinary surgeon and new candidate for the Partit Nazzjonalista on the third district.