OUT THERE VETTING
A TRULY MIXED PRACTICE Mirjam Guesgen speaks to Greg Hall, Managing Director and large animal veterinarian at Energy Vets in Taranaki, about the value of being a contract practice and the importance of veterinary support staff. What kind of practice is Energy Vets Taranaki? We’re a contract practice, which means we have a contract of service to two veterinary clubs – Inglewood Vet Services and North Taranaki Vet Services. We have two clinics, one in Inglewood and one in Waitara. Basically we’re a privately owned company but we don’t own the buildings. The clubs own those and are essentially our landlords. It’s beneficial to us because we don’t have to come up with a lot of capital for premises.
22 – VetScript November 2020
We’re a fairly typical, rural mixed practice. I think our difference is that we have a good team of people who work together well, and we have a really good atmosphere here. What I really enjoy in this business is being part of the community. Who owns and manages the practice? We’re owned by four shareholders, who all work in the business. Three of them, including me, are veterinarians
and work day to day in the clinic. I’m also the Managing Director. The other veterinarians are Aaron Chambers, who’s also the Farm Animal Operations Manager, and Peter Benn, who’s our Resident Director at the Waitara clinic. The fourth shareholder is Kylie Lindsay, who’s not a veterinarian and works as the Stock and Clinic Services Manager. Together we set the direction and goals of the practice and look after its financial performance. We have a two- or three-hour management meeting every second Wednesday, where we discuss any issues. It’s a structured meeting with an agenda and minutes. We also deal with issues as they come up. All the managers have opendoor policies and we can easily bring issues to each other’s attention because we’re all working together anyway. In that sense the management structure isn’t separate from the rest of the business. How many staff do you have? We have a staff of 35 across two clinics: 15 veterinarians, six veterinary nurses, three large animal veterinary technicians, five receptionists, an on-farm salesperson who also helps in reception, and five in the administration team. Some of our team can fit into large and small animal roles, but most are either
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARK HARRIS
