April 28, 2025
Employer of Choice Spotlight: A Chat with Tom Dinwiddie of Wanganui Vet Services & Vets on Carlton
What happens when a non-veterinarian takes the helm of a veterinary practice? In this chat, Tom Dinwiddie reveals how his business background and people-first approach have transformed Wanganui Veterinary Services and Vets on Carlton into genuine Employers of Choice in New Zealand's veterinary landscape.
At the heart of Tom's management philosophy lies a refreshing commitment to autonomy and accountability. "We allow people to make their own decisions and work autonomously," he explains, sharing real examples of team members who've flourished under this approach—from the young vet who researched and recommended dental X-ray equipment to the reserved nurse who blossomed into a confident leader.
This trust extends to equipment needs and continuing education, with the practice generously supporting veterinarians' professional interests, whether in advanced dentistry, ultrasound techniques, or orthopaedic surgery.
Beyond the clinic walls, Tom paints a vivid picture of Whanganui as "New Zealand's best-kept secret"—a place where veterinary professionals can truly have it all. With affordable housing, excellent schools, and boundless outdoor adventures from river kayaking to mountain climbing, the area offers the quintessential New Zealand lifestyle without the constraints of big-city living.
The clinic's success in integrating international veterinary skills is exemplified by Hein, a Dutch veterinarian who joined after falling in love with the Whanganui River during a kayak trip and has now built a life and orthopaedic skills there over ten years.
For veterinary professionals contemplating their next career move, this conversation presents a compelling alternative to the traditional vet-owned practice model—one where personal and professional growth go hand in hand, all within one of New Zealand's most liveable communities.
Visit vetclinicjobs.com/vets-on-carlton to discover how you could be part of this exceptional team.
Struggling to get results from your job advertisements?
If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic.
The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs
00:05 - Introduction to Veterinary Voices
01:42 - Tom's Path to Clinic Ownership
04:09 - Non-Veterinarian Ownership Perspective
07:15 - Growing Team Members Through Autonomy
11:42 - Sister Clinics: Structure and Operations
16:44 - Whanganui: A Great Place to Live
23:13 - Building a Diverse Veterinary Team
29:44 - Supporting New Staff Integration
34:07 - Why Choose Vets on Carlton
WEBVTT
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This is Veterinary Voices and I'm Julie South.
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Veterinary Voices is all about showcasing employer of choice veterinary clinics, those clinics that are absolutely 100% great to work at.
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Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobscom.
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The job board, direct hiring, reimagined no agency.
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To find out more about the clinics that we profile, visit vetclinicjobscom.
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Today I catch up with Tom Dinwiddie of Whanganui Vet Services and Vets on Carlton.
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If you're a veterinary professional who's qualified to work in New Zealand and you're looking to make your next professional move, then stay tuned, because the job at Vets on Carlton could be just what you've been waiting for.
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To find out more about the job, visit vetclinicjobscom.
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Slash vets on Carlton, and that's vets hyphen on hyphen Carlton.
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To make it easy for you, all links will be in the show notes of wherever you're listening to this right now.
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Now, let's let's head on over to the chat that I had with Tom.
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Tom, can you tell me please how you came to be the owner of Whanganui Veterinary Services and how Vets on Carlton came to be?
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So I started with Whanganui Veterinary Services in 2001.
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It was after about five years I was given the opportunity to buy shares.
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I guess that was through the open-mindedness of the head veterinarian, david Barton, who at the time could see there was an opportunity to include non-veterinarians in veterinary practice.
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I was very keen to buy shares.
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Settled in Whanganui with a young family, and it was the opportunity to be invested in a business From there.
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Over time, with retirements, our shareholdings have changed slightly and our current shareholding is there's four of us involved in the business, two non-veterinarians and two veterinarians.
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We've got a sales manager who primarily spends his time working with farmers, who's a 10% shareholder.
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We've got another veterinarian who's taken on 10% and Peter Scott has a 40% shareholding, as I do as well, and that makes up the 100%.
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Presently we've got to the time where Peter, after 33 years, has decided to retire.
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We're looking to take on new shareholders at the present time and some of the others are going to take on more shares than what they have presently and with his retirement we obviously need to find a veterinarian to pick up the mantle from where he's left off after such a long career in the same business.
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It's really unusual, in New Zealand at least, for vet clinics to be owned by non-veterinarians.
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How has that been for you?
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I know you don't know any different, because that's the way it's always been.
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I think it's been fine.
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I've come from an animal health background, formerly working for Sharing Plow Animal Health, so I guess and I sold products to OTC and to veterinarians I guess came with some knowledge where I was able to understand, I suppose, some of the things that they were talking about.
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They've been very good at helping me with the technical side of you know, explaining why animals might have a condition or haven't responded to medication, that sort of thing.
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I think the team here are very good and open-minded towards the fact that as a non-veterinarian, I sort of look at it from a business point of view and they look at it perhaps more from a technical side of things and that works very well.
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I would imagine that, because you're not a veterinarian, it means that there's no micromanagement by you over your team.
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No, there certainly isn't.
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And one of the things that, as a manager, I try to sort of build in our whole team is a culture of accountability, for one thing, but also taking ownership, and that means that we allow people to make their own decisions and we allow people to work autonomously and build on the knowledge that they have and to use the knowledge they have without having to ask questions.
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And, you know, I think they have the confidence, I suppose, to make their own decisions, you know, within reason.
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A management style like that means that people are growing and growing in confidence, like you've just talked about.
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Would you be able I realize I'm throwing you on the on- the spot here.
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Can you think of any instances where a vet or a nurse or somebody you know, one one of your team, has been required or has stepped up and or been supported to make a decision and you've actually decisions, plural, I guess and you've seen somebody grow because of the style of management?
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Yes, we had a young vet who had been with us about a year and we gave her the task.
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She went to a dental course and we gave her the task of researching dental x-ray and what machine we should buy.
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That was her job.
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She did all the research, did the pricing, came back with all the answers and with a bit of discussion from the senior veterinarians, we went on to purchase what she had come up with.
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I think from that she gained a huge amount of confidence.
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We've seen the dental side of things grow hugely through the use of dental x-ray where we were perhaps lacking before.
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Some of the people we've got as they have progressed through the organisation.
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There has been the ability for vet nurses especially to step into more lead roles and we have a head vet nurse at the moment in Whanganui Vet Services who started off with us straight out of certificate nursing.
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While she's been a nurse at work she also completed her diploma.
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She now leads the team.
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She's the head vet nurse and she's progressed through From, I guess, being a quieter person with perhaps a reserved nature.
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You've seen her grow and develop into a really good head vet nurse who has the ability to lead other people and I think she's probably surprised herself as to what she's capable of.
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How does Whanganui Veterinary Services and Vets on Carlton, how do they interrelate?
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I sort of think of them as being perhaps sister clinics.
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Would that be a fair analogy?
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Yes, the two clinics that aside each other in Whanganui and they operate as sister clinics.
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The Whanganui Veterinary Services handles the true mixed animal practice where we handle all the larger animal type work as well as a fair swag of small animal work as well.
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Vets on Carlton is a practice that was purchased, I guess many years ago, of a retiring veterinarian.
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It sits there and, I guess, takes the burden of all the small animal practice.
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It has its own culture, which is slightly, you know it is different to ours.
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The clinic is custom built, it's new, which is slightly, you know it is different to ours.
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The clinic is custom built, it's new.
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The clientele there don't have to walk into a showroom full of drench and other thing.
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That's very much customized to small animal type veterinary service.
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You're looking for a companion animal veterinarian ostensibly companion animal because they're going to be based at Vets on Carlton.
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What would a typical day look like for them?
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A typical day in Vets on Carlton would involve either consulting or surgery or a mixture of both.
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Sometimes they will consult until morning tea time and then move into surgery, depending on what the expected workload is in the surgery team or what's booked in.
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This is a system that's worked for them very well in the past.
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If they have a larger surgery day, one of the veterinarians will be solely based in surgery for the day.
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The consulting veterinarian would be consulting for the day and have a list pre-booked and have a list pre-booked.
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The consulting veterinarian would be there with a list.
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That's usually fairly well pre-booked.
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Appointments are 15 minutes long.
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We do extend those out for longer consulting procedures such as air conditions or skin conditions where we know we're going to need more time.
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There is little quirks that Peter has done in the past.
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He has been the only export veterinarian in Whanganui and that has led him to, I guess, quite a lot of business and time spent exporting dogs overseas for breeders and for anyone that is making a move abroad.
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Is that something that you would like to see continued?
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if somebody has an interest in paperwork, yes, we would like to see the export certificates continued.
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I think it's a good service that is sought after.
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So there's lots of different situations where people might want to move an animal overseas.
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It does take a bit of paperwork and a bit of understanding of the regulations, but it's certainly quite a rewarding thing and it could be.
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Sometimes it's the final goodbye to a very good client and it's a nice way to finish if you can provide that service right through.
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Sometimes it fare well for a few years and then they come back remember the good job that was done when they had left New Zealand.
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Let's talk about coming back to Whanganui, but maybe not coming back, but starting off afresh.
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You've brought up a family in Whanganui.
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Are you a local, and what's that been like for you?
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I moved to Whanganui in 1996.
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I wasn't from Whanganui but quickly made it my home and settled here.
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I've raised two children in Whanganui and my daughter just said to me the other day she's 23 now and she said that it was a great place to grow up.
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The schooling here is very good.
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You've got some great country schools just out of town.
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There's Wanganui Intermediate and Wanganui High School, which provide on the whole for the majority of kids, and they've both got very good records.
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Also we have two private schools in St George's for intermediate or primary school, to intermediate, and Whanganui Collegiate, which takes girls and boys through their secondary school years as a private school.
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So there's plenty of options for people with their schooling.
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Whanganui is a beautiful town and I always tell people it's New Zealand's best kept secret.
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For people that haven't been here or don't know the place very well, they usually are quite surprised at what they find.
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Having lived here, I still find things that I didn't know existed here.
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That's kind of the quirky nature of Whanganui.
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You can always find a little nook and cranny where there's something there that's been there for many years and you never knew it existed.
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There's lots of opportunities in the outdoors, sporting-wise or just getting out tramping.
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There's access to beaches.
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The river is a great source of pastimes the rowing, waka, ama, the multi-sport club, kayaking.
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There's a lot of different activities here.
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People have gone on to great things in multi-sport competing in coast-to-coast and all sorts of things and they do most of the training in Whanganui.
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We have a velodrome, open-air velodrome which still gets used.
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Cook's Gardens running track is one of New Zealand's better-known running tracks.
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Peter Snell famously broke the four-minute mile here and there's a statue of him sitting there at the park.
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Out and about in the greater parts of Whanganui there's ample opportunity to go get out and about, go tramping.
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There's opportunities for hunting lots of deer goats, smaller prey rabbits.
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Many farmers are quite happy to have people venture out on their properties because it all comes down to keeping a control on numbers.
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There are some pretty heroes in country out the back there, but it's great to get out and, amongst it, experience the great outdoors.
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We also have the National Park on one side of us with the river coming down.
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There's some great opportunities up there.
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The kayak trip down the river is quite spectacular.
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The bridge to nowhere trip you can jet boat up to the bridge to nowhere and walk in to a bridge in the middle of the bush, as per the name, and it's one of.
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I guess on a nice day one of the highlights of my time in Whanganui is going up to the bridge to nowhere.
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We're also very close to a lot of other amenities.
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Mount Ruapehu for skiing is less than two hours away so you can leave Whanganui, you know, reasonably early in the morning, be on the slopes eight o'clock-ish and up with everyone else that's stayed up there on the mountain.
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Myself I've climbed Mount Ngarahoe, I've climbed Mount Taranaki.
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I took my kids up there, made them climb up with me.
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There's plenty of things.
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I mean they're well within distance for day tripping.
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Coastal opportunities the fishing off Whanganui is very well known, not uncommon to be able to go down to the beach even and put a long line out and drag in a good feed of snapper.
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Describe to me the makeup, the mix of your team.
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You're talking about lots of outdoorsy things here, which is you're part of New Zealand's heartland, like your outdoorsy mountain climbing is.
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Are you typical of your team?
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Is somebody coming in going to think I've got to be a mountain climber to to fit in with this team, or I've got to be, you know, a tramper or into the great outdoors?
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We have a very diverse team, all sorts of different interests.
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Our veterinary team have different interests and different skills and different ranges of experience, which is great.
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It makes for great collegial support and opportunities to learn off each other In terms of their backgrounds.
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We have one veterinarian from Holland who's come out here and really enjoyed all the things that Whanganui has to offer.
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We have a mix of male and female veterinarians.
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There's also, I guess, a good cross-section of interests.
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We've had the great bake-off chocolate cake over two weeks and that brought the best out in everybody, everybody, and the winning cake was quite something.
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Is that something that happens regularly?
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I wouldn't say regularly, but we have these things that happen and they seem to just happen from a bright idea and people seem to come on board and enjoy it.
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At the moment we've got an Anzac Day feature outside the clinic.
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A couple of the nurses one of the vets decided that they wanted to put on an Anzac Day feature outside the clinic.
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A couple of the nurses one of the vets decided that they wanted to put in an Anzac Day feature.
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So we've got a very well-designed front lawn.
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We've had a lot of very favourable comment.
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It looks pretty smart.
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What software do you use?
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Are you Vision EasyVet?
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So we use VetLink.
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Do you have VIN?
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Yes, we have VIN.
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The resource gets used every now and then downstairs, so it's good to have access to those types of things.
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This is for vets on Carlton as well.
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Yes, it's available through both clinics.
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I think in the clinic we have a good range of toys and the vets get to put forward if they want something new.
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We're quite open to investing in something new which has some value.
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Also, I would say that vets have the opportunity to follow their interests.
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So we strongly encourage CPD and are willing to pay and invest in people to further their knowledge and their interests.
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So there is an opportunity for people to really pursue something that they're very keen on and we see that as strengthening the whole team because we've got a broad range of skills.
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It does allow people to spread the word within the clinic when they come back and everyone learns from the skills that people have picked up.
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We've sent two of our large animal veterinarians to Australia to do equine dental courses over the past five years, which has been very useful.
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We have vets.
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Rebecca has gone to a couple of ultrasound courses so she's progressed her ultrasound techniques.
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We've had two people attend dental courses in the last year.
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That's been great for furthering the exposure to dental medicine within the clinic.
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We've had Hein medicine within the clinic.
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We've had Hein who's come from Holland and wished to follow orthopaedics as an interest and pretty much from a standing start, has progressed through to a point where he is doing some quite advanced work, which is good for Whanganui.
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You mentioned just now that you've got lots of toys, and earlier on you mentioned somebody having a penchant for dental work.
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Are you able to give me another example of where somebody said I would really like this?
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Whatever this is, and because they've put forward a good presentation to you, you've supported them.
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Well, I think there's lots of examples where people have come to me and said we need something replaced or we need something new.
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And I always take the, I suppose, fairly generous outlook on it and think, well, if they're coming to me and telling me that it's necessary or will be good, then it most likely is going to be of some use and or needs to be replaced, and so I don't really have much hesitation in approving the purchase of new equipment or replacement equipment.
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Last week we needed to get a new monitor and we had one that was playing up and rather than keep repairing it we decided we'd just buy a new one and save ourselves the headache of trying to keep repairing the old one.
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It's those little things, I think, that matter.
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We don't, and it makes people's lives easier, so we don't want to make it hard for them.
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There is the opportunity in Whanganui Veterinary Services to get an all-round exposure to veterinary profession in New Zealand in a mixed animal practice.
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Out in a provincial town or city like Whanganui we spend quite a bit of time with our graduates getting them mentored.
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We don't let them do after hours until they've been with us for six months.
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That's to make sure that they are comfortable and they have, I guess, first of all, mastered the consult room and dealing with people.
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They've become accustomed to the clinic, where everything is, and they also, I guess, can grow in confidence and start believing in themselves by about six months in so we're always conscious that people learn at different times, so we try and keep an eye on people.
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We've had some very, very good graduates in the last five years and I think every one of them has made the progression into being a really good vet in almost record time, and it never ceases to amaze us how quickly they do progress sometimes.
00:20:33.382 --> 00:20:43.262
So I think that goes down to the older team members, the older vets that look after and mentor the younger ones and bring them through.
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It's a matter of giving them the confidence to believe in themselves and believe in what they already probably know and put it into practice.
00:20:50.671 --> 00:20:56.324
Do you have ways of formally sharing information?
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Do you have regular team meetings, monthly, quarterly?
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Whatever case studies, what's?
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that like.
00:21:04.589 --> 00:21:10.957
Yes, we have a vet meeting, normally every six to eight weeks, just depending on workload and who's around.
00:21:10.957 --> 00:21:15.617
Sometimes it doesn't always work and we always go out for dinner afterwards.
00:21:15.617 --> 00:21:16.560
It's a great chance.
00:21:16.560 --> 00:21:18.938
The meeting usually takes about an hour and a half.
00:21:18.938 --> 00:21:28.521
We share, I guess, things that we could improve in the clinic around process and anything that may need fixing in terms of process.
00:21:28.521 --> 00:21:43.318
We also talk about conferences and, I guess, cases where people may have something that's going to benefit everyone and if we kind of break down those cases bit by bit, there's kind of some good learning to take out of it.
00:21:43.318 --> 00:21:56.044
The dinner afterwards that forms part of some of our vet's social life, especially those that have got young kids and they don't get out often and they look forward to their dinner to the point where I sometimes get asked when's our next vet meeting?
00:21:56.044 --> 00:21:59.156
And I know that it's because they just want to get out and have a good night out.
00:22:00.500 --> 00:22:01.766
Yeah, that's good to hear.
00:22:01.766 --> 00:22:06.455
You mentioned that you've got somebody from the Netherlands with you.
00:22:06.455 --> 00:22:11.144
Yes, was this their first job in New Zealand?
00:22:11.849 --> 00:22:39.390
Yes, we met Hein online, interviewed him, and he had been a vet in Holland for a number of years a small number of years and then he had been to New Zealand and done the kayak trip down the Whanganui River and he had some very strong and favourable memories of that trip and how he came down and he dreamed when he came to Whanganui that he would be able to kayak to work and home again as the river flows past the front of the clinic.
00:22:39.390 --> 00:22:51.701
So when he came to Whanganui he was already, I suppose, conversant with the town and the beauty of the area and he's stayed with us for 10 years and settled here.
00:22:52.190 --> 00:22:53.496
Does he kayak to work?
00:22:53.970 --> 00:22:58.261
He didn't by a house that was close to the river, unfortunately.
00:22:58.810 --> 00:23:00.417
Does he kayak at lunchtime?
00:23:00.950 --> 00:23:03.182
Yes, well, not at lunchtime, but in his days off.
00:23:03.182 --> 00:23:20.498
He actually now goes kayaking down the Whanganui River and different places around Whanganui and actually I was out delivering drinks this morning and he's actually at work but I saw the kayakers all diving into the river at the top of the Mangamahu Valley, which the Whangāhu River flows down there, and I know he's done that in his time off.
00:23:20.498 --> 00:23:30.907
So I did laugh to see them all popping their kayaks in the river and thought of Hein and his sort of a popping their kayaks in the river and thought of Hein and his sort of a.
00:23:30.907 --> 00:23:32.750
Yeah, he does I mean he does.
00:23:32.770 --> 00:23:34.252
His kayaking has been something he's really got stuck into.
00:23:34.252 --> 00:23:38.540
Really, Did the clinic support him in integration and getting so?
00:23:38.540 --> 00:23:40.285
They weren't, you know, outsiders?
00:23:41.411 --> 00:23:42.252
Yes, when they came.
00:23:42.252 --> 00:23:48.280
When Hein came to Whanganui, we supported him and we rented a house for him so he could move straight in to a nice suburb in Whanganui.
00:23:48.280 --> 00:23:50.595
We supported him and we rented a house for him so he could move straight in to a nice suburb in Whanganui.
00:23:50.595 --> 00:23:57.853
After some time he took over the rental and then in time he bought his own house.
00:23:57.853 --> 00:24:01.582
He saw the opportunity, put down roots in Whanganui, bought his own house.
00:24:01.582 --> 00:24:19.935
When he first came out we spent some time with him, showing him the sites of Whanganui, I suppose, and got him out, having dinner and sort of introducing him to as many people as possible so he knew or could quickly build up a network of friends.
00:24:19.935 --> 00:24:23.933
I think having young kids that were just about to go into school was a great plus for him.
00:24:23.933 --> 00:24:32.115
So they integrated into local schooling really well and met a lot of people through the local school.
00:24:32.115 --> 00:24:33.718
I remember showing him around.
00:24:33.718 --> 00:24:34.779
I just happened.
00:24:34.779 --> 00:24:39.395
I like ABBA, you're giving your age away.
00:24:39.415 --> 00:24:39.576
Yeah.
00:24:40.391 --> 00:24:42.738
And he hopped in my vehicle and I didn't even realise it was playing.
00:24:42.738 --> 00:24:49.142
He said to me in his Dutch accent Tom, there is something very comforting about working for a man who likes ABBA.
00:24:50.832 --> 00:24:51.595
Are they Dutch?
00:24:51.595 --> 00:24:54.076
Abba is not from.
00:24:54.890 --> 00:24:55.894
No, no, they're from.
00:24:56.457 --> 00:24:58.476
Sweden, sweden, yeah, that's right.
00:24:59.651 --> 00:25:05.963
But I guess ABBA is known all over the world and I guess for most people a fairly outdated band but I still enjoy listening to it.
00:25:06.634 --> 00:25:09.553
You put ABBA on and everybody will take to the dance floor.
00:25:10.114 --> 00:25:11.276
That's right, that's right.
00:25:11.497 --> 00:25:17.211
Provincial New Zealand, of which I would describe Whanganui.
00:25:17.211 --> 00:25:22.193
You've got somebody coming in who has an accent.
00:25:22.193 --> 00:25:26.195
How was he welcomed?
00:25:26.195 --> 00:25:38.061
Because it's really easy for provincial New Zealand to be quite closed and not particularly welcoming of foreigners.
00:25:38.061 --> 00:25:42.484
How was that for?
00:25:42.545 --> 00:25:44.786
Hein arrived in Whanganui.
00:25:44.786 --> 00:25:46.707
He integrated really easily.
00:25:46.707 --> 00:25:49.688
We have a lot of people from different places.
00:25:49.688 --> 00:25:52.478
We have doctors and dentists, many South Africans.
00:25:52.478 --> 00:26:03.624
Whanganui is a funny place where the population is over 40,000 and yet you walk down the street and it's not uncommon to run into someone you know.
00:26:03.624 --> 00:26:13.657
So there's a real community feel here and I guess one of the comments that many people make coming to wanganui is how friendly it is.
00:26:13.657 --> 00:26:33.141
So I think integrating into the local community is it's probably one of the easier places in new zealand to actually come here as a foreign person and feel you have a, have a, there's a space here for you and there's somewhere where people accept you and there's lots of different people to meet.
00:26:33.260 --> 00:26:37.155
I guess there's so many things in wanganui that I kind of forget them all.
00:26:37.155 --> 00:26:41.270
There's the waimari goes up the river on a daily basis the paddle steamer.
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