On-call vet
Updated
This article is for veterinary clinic teams. If you're worried about a pet right now, call your vet or nearest emergency clinic.
An on-call vet is the veterinarian named on a rota to be reachable outside normal opening hours, so the clinic always has a specific person to alert when an urgent call comes in while it is closed.
Not every clinic has one. Some hand all after-hours urgent calls to an emergency partner hospital. Others keep a vet on call for their own clients, for example for a few evening hours, or for patients the clinic has asked to call back. Many do both: callers are given the partner's details, and the on-call vet is told so they can follow up.
What the arrangement covers
A clear on-call arrangement answers four questions. Who is on call, and when does each shift start and end? How do they get alerted: phone call, text, app, or several at once? What should happen if they don't respond? And who is next on the list?
The rota lives somewhere the whole team can see it, and changes are made there rather than by word of mouth. Swaps happen, so the rota needs an owner who keeps it correct. Each alert should also be acknowledged, so the clinic knows a person has seen it rather than assuming they have.
Keeping it fair and workable
Being on call is tiring. Clinics that keep it sustainable spread shifts evenly, keep alerts to calls that truly need a vet, and send routine messages to the next business day. Clear notes help as well: the person woken at night should know who called, about which pet, and what the caller was told, without having to ring anyone back first.
An example
A three-vet clinic rotates on-call duty weekly. The rota sheet lists each vet's dates, their preferred alert method and a backup. When the duty vet is at a family event one evening, she swaps with a colleague and updates the sheet, so alerts go to the right person.
How Tilly handles it
After hours, when Tilly hears a red flag, it gives the caller your emergency partner's details and alerts your on-call vet by phone call, text and app alert. If they don't acknowledge, Tilly alerts the next person on your rota, then texts owners and managers. Your clinic sets its on-call contacts and their order in Tilly, so alerts follow your rota.
The after-hours calls guide and the phone coverage guide explain how to plan after-hours cover.