3,000 veterinary practices will be looking for a successor in the next 10 years.   

Statistics from the "Veterinarians Atlas Germany 2024", which was published by the Dessau Future Circle in October 2024, show that the total number of established veterinarians has been on a plateau for years, with 12,019 self-employed veterinarians in 2019 (in all curative areas). Since then, however, the number of self-employed has been falling. In 2023, the number of employed veterinarians equalled that of established veterinarians and even overtook them in 2024. Furthermore, the Veterinarians Atlas shows that around 3,000 veterinary practices will have to find a succession solution for their unit in the next 10 years. (DZK GbR Dr Julia Henning/Hubertus Keimer, 2024, p.38 ff.)

This development poses particular challenges for the industry and especially for curative small animal medicine: On the one hand, independent curative veterinarians in small animal practices, animal health centres and small animal clinics are already unable to find successors for their respective units. The recent past shows that some of the units are being sold to investor groups/corporates or to private veterinary successors. However, there are also some units that do not find buyers and are closed by the retiring independent veterinarians without being continued by the younger generation.

On the other hand, young veterinarians have the opportunity to take over existing and functioning veterinary units. Many potential successors, young veterinarians and students know too little about the economic, professional and social situations as well as the satisfaction of today's independent veterinarians in small animal medicine. During the student training period, there are already a few elective subjects and compulsory lectures on the topics of economics and self-employment, but this area needs to be further expanded. In addition, potential successors often shy away from the responsibility and risk of self-employment. What challenges do self-employed veterinarians have to overcome today? How satisfied are self-employed veterinarians? What recommendations are there for future generations? These are just some of the questions that the study aims to answer.  

The Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Biometry, together with PhD student Daron R. Remien, is researching the current professional, economic and social situations as well as the satisfaction of self-employed veterinarians in the field of curative small animal medicine in Germany.

The target group are self-employed veterinarians who, as owners and proprietors, are in positions of leadership and responsibility in their veterinary unit and generate their own profits. The type of company does not matter if the unit does not belong to an investor group/corporate.

The survey will be made available to participants via the online survey platform LimeSurvey Cloud, which is licensed by the FU Berlin: General information on self-employment in the field of small animal medicine, satisfaction with different working time models, the issue of succession or generational change and questions on retirement provision. There are also questions on the topics of management, human resources and business administration. At the end of the survey, the socio-demographic data of the participants is collected. 

The evaluation of the study will help future generations of self-employed veterinarians to gain a broader perspective on the topic of "self-employment in small animal medicine". The study also aims to obtain a status quo on self-employment. This newly acquired information and knowledge will help future self-employed veterinarians to remain capable of acting, innovative, modern and competitive. All self-employed veterinarians in the field of small animal medicine are cordially invited to take part in this survey.

You can find the link to the survey here: https://vetepi.limesurvey.net/824113?lang=de

To contact us, please contact PD Dr Roswitha Merle, e-mail: roswitha.merle@fu-berlin.de, telephone 030 838 75096.