The University of Saskatchewan’s Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC), aiming to boost the volume and variety of its caseload, has expanded the discounts it offers to staff and students.
Where a 10 per cent discount was previously available only to staff and students of the U of S Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM), it’s now offered to all U of S staff or students showing a valid staff or student card.
The discount applies only to the Saskatoon centre’s professional veterinary services, not to drugs or lab tests.
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The VMC will offer the discount for work done on large animals as well as on companion animals that are brought to the hospital, centre director Dr. Duncan Hockley said in a release.
Because the centre’s operation includes the college’s field service — through which veterinarians travel to where large animals are — “if you have 10 cows on your farm, (the discount) will be available for that service too,” he said.
The centre, which is already open to the public, now handles over 17,000 cases per year, about half of which are referrals from across Western Canada. VMC veterinarians also treat another 30,000 animals a year through field service visits.
“But the more active the hospital is, the more we can invest in new services and equipment,” said Hockley, a WCVM alumnus who became the centre’s director in March. “We’re also looking to engage a bit more with the campus community.”
Also, he said, the VMC “wants to increase our caseload where we see healthy patients.”
Saskatoon also has the highest number of vet clinics per capita in Canada, he said, “so we have to be competitive in terms of cost and the quality of service we offer.”
The centre has over 60 faculty and 120 support staff, plus interns, residents and students to see patients, he said. — AGCanada.com Network
