the magic number

Re: the magic number

Gareth C. — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:18:32 GMT

i just want to make a note for transparency that I write the crosswords column in vet practice magazine. I wrote septembers column last night and emailed it to the editor. it does discuss some of the issues in this thread, but most of the figures eg turnover per vet at 200k, turnover per client, 1,000 active clients per fte vet etc etc etc are widely available and well known anyway. As a practice owner I am fairly familiar with them. The headline population figure is what I am after. I am just saying this in case anyone here comes up with the same population figure I arrived at last night and thinks I've pinched their hard work!

Re: the magic number

Tim Cheyne — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:10:54 GMT

Would the profiles in UPMYSTREET http://www.upmystreet.com/ be any help to you in assessing the neighbourhood?

Tim.

Re: the magic number

Alan Tevendale — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 07:35:47 GMT

That figure will very much depend on what sort of practice you are in. SA practice requires a higher income to break even than LA does (lower overheads). Can't remember the figures off the top of my head but Hazelwoods give benchmarking figures that aren't too far off the £200,000 mark.

Re: the magic number

Mark Hedberg — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:11:18 GMT

Anecdotally, I read that a veterinary surgeon needs to generate £200,000 to make his employer break even on him. Don't know how true it is...I think it was in an old Vet Record but no longer sure. (It was about 4 years ago...)

Re: the magic number

Rob Loxley — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:07:05 GMT

[quote user="Gareth C."]what is the human population / population density needed to support one FTE small animal vet? I.e. not pet owners or anything, just headline population? Or how many households?[/quote]

From a webinar I seem to remember the figure of 1000 'clients'/FTE vet as a benchmark aim (and I assume that would refer to 'households' rather than head of population for your question), based on average pets per client and spend per pet per year. More affluent areas may be able to support a vet with fewer, higher spending clients.