Why vets are still getting the message - Yorkshire Vet Julian Norton

At first, as with all mod-cons, I was slightly sceptical. Was this unnecessarily complicated? I know from years of experience that vets can spend tracts of time wandering around a carpark looking for the patient. Occasionally there is extra info on the diary screen, like in black VW” which can help, unless there are two or three black VWs outside. I once knocked on the window of a car whose driver had just dropped his daughter off at the nearby dance class, when I was searching for a Labrador with a sore tail. It’s intrusive to knock on a car window and interrupt the internet browsing of a parent, snatching 15 minutes to themselves. Or anyone, for that matter.

So far however, the beepers are working a treat; although for those of us who have been in practice a long time, the sound is somewhat triggering. Before mobile phones existed, vets were permanently attached to a beeper. An invisible umbilical cord connecting an on-call vet to all emergencies, 24-hours a day. I spent twenty-five years with a beeper in my pocket. In the 1990s, the beepers were basic. The high pitched and incessant noise could (and would) rouse even the weariest vet from the deepest of sleeps. Your heart rate would be shoot up because of the surge of adrenaline and cortisol that inevitably coursed through your body at the sudden shock. There was no message on the screen so, for a few minutes we had no way of knowing if there had been a multiple pile up on the A19, involving a horse box or a lorry-load of piglets (both have happened to me) or horribly difficult calving high up on a wild and wind-swept hillside (that’s happened many times), or whether it was something less dramatic that just needed telephone advice. On one occasion, midway through a busy Sunday afternoon, my beeper buzzed. I stopped what I was doing to phone the lady who took a turn to answer the practice phones occasionally. She had worked at the practice on reception before she retired, so had a basic knowledge of the way vets worked. Part of her retirement plan was to be on the phone duty rota. The practice contributed towards her phone bill, which was helpful because her daughter lived in Australia and so the BT bill was excessive. Nobody asked too many questions.

“I’ve got you some plums!” was the jovial message when I called to find out what the emergency was. Her plum tree was evidently providing a healthy supply of fruit and she had deemed it a good idea to send a pager message to let me know there were some spare. It was a well meant but annoying interruption amongst a huge list of calls, but to be fair, on a busy Sunday was actually quite a relief. Times have moved on, but I’m pleased to see that a beeper still has a place in a veterinary practice. Even if it isn’t exactly a miracle!