When there aren’t enough vets in an area, it affects public health, animal welfare, food safety, and emergency preparedness. Adding to the challenge, the few available veterinarians face long workdays, high pressure, immense responsibility, and insufficient pay.

Read ore about the project on Digital Helgeland's website (in Norwegian).

Findings from the insight phase:

• I find it difficult to maintain responsible veterinary services.

• I go to great lengths for the animals, at the expense of my own health.

• I need to prioritize where I am needed most.

• Admin tasks are difficult to fit into my schedule.

In the project, we interviewed verts, farmers, municipalities, Animalia, and the Directorate of Agriculture. We also conducted a field visit to a municipality in Helgeland and shadowed a vet in action. We also facilitated a workshop with key stakeholders.

In the first project phase, we delivered an insight report with recommendations for further action.

Constructive meetings between farmers, vets, and municipal staff improved understanding of the municipalities’ responsibilities to ensure proper veterinary services. We also provided opportunities for these stakeholders to meet and discuss shared solutions.

Based on these insights, the ambition is to design sketches for a national collaboration system for desktop and mobile devices. The system will allow farmers to report tasks and plan ahead, while vets can better organize travel routes and the equipment they need for different situations. Municipalities will get an overview of whether there are enough vets to cover shifts.

Early user tests indicate that the digital solution could eliminate office hours for vets, enabling them to head directly to appointments when their working day begins. It also provides municipalities with an overview of veterinarians' workloads, helping them implement measures to maintain a good working environment.

"The combination of service design and Digitale Helgeland staff’s extensive experience with digitalisation in the public sector makes us confident that our recommendations in this report address real needs and challenges in today’s services."

Camilla Falch, Project Manager, Digital Helgeland

Read the whole report here (in Norwegian).