The Featherston branch of South Wairarapa Veterinary Services [SWVS] has informed its customers that it is closing its doors for good in just 10 days’ time [Thursday, November 16], after telling them in September that the closure wouldn’t happen until April next year.
The surprise announcement in September said both SWVS’s Featherston and Martinborough clinics would remain open until its new Greytown clinic was up and running in April 2024, and cited a workforce that was “stretched too thinly” to provide “the consistent hours and high-quality service that we want to deliver in South Wairarapa” and the “ageing” state of the two clinics as the reason for the rationalisation of its outlets in the region.
“All team members who have been working in Martinborough and Featherston will shift to the new [Greytown] clinic,” SWVS managing director Aidan Smith said at the time, “so clients will see the same friendly faces when they bring their animal to see us and hear the same voices when they ring for farm supplies”.
In an email sent to SWVS clients yesterday, the decision to suddenly close the Featherston clinic five months earlier than previously stated was attributed to a “global shortage of veterinarians” making it “increasingly difficult to resource four clinics” and the Featherston clinic requiring “major upgrades to enable us to provide a higher quality of care to your animals”.
The email stated the decision “was not made lightly”.
From mid-November 2023 to March 2024, Featherston clients will need to visit SWVS clinics in either Carterton, Martinborough, or Masterton for appointments.
Those clients who are unable to travel with their pets to one of SWVS’s other clinics in the region are urged to “please give us a call, and we will strive to find a solution for you”.
The new veterinary clinic in Greytown is reportedly “progressing well” and is expected to be completed by March 2024.
SWVS was unable to respond before print time to Times-Age questions about what the plans are for Featherston staff who were previously going to immediately start work at the new Greytown clinic when their branch closed, and whether there have been recent SWVS staff losses that prompted bringing forward the Featherston clinic closure.
