Is this the most isolated Veterinary Surgeon in the world – Or do you know different?

Posted on February 15, 2012 in General • 3 Comments

Just to say that as far as I’m concerned Webinar Vet has dug me out of a difficulty. I am the first permanent vet here on the island of St Helena, 1,700 miles from Africa and 2,000 miles from South America. Our nearest land is the smaller island of Ascension 700 miles away. We are truly cut off, access only by ship and it takes usually a minimum of 5 days to get to a mainland (South Africa or the UK).

I was working in general practice in Hampshire before taking up this post, having also done a spell in the Falklands (which I loved) and then being asked to train para-veterinarians here. One of my difficulties is CPD, and after I had sampled a few of your freebies I approached the Director of Agriculture here and pointed out my commitment to mandatory CPD. He was very reasonable and met me half way on the subscription – St Helena is essentially a false economy heavily reliant on Uk grant-in-aid (as it is so nicely called!) chanelled through DFID.

Incidentally I have to oldest known living patient in the world – my namesake Jonathan, an Aldabra (or possibly Seychelles – controversial and down to DNA busting old species classifications ) Giant tortoise. He was fully mature when imported in 1882 – which made him at least 50 – and is now therefore reckoned to be at least 180 years old (life expectancy 150). I’ve been involved in quite a bit of research around the topic, and hand feed him weekly at the moment to compensate for his loss of eyesight, blunt beak, and lack of ability to smell. This has made his grazing rather random, so that his grazing effort is disproportionately large compared to the others to achieve his intake (4 others). It’s been an interesting learning curve and I now know far too much about Giant Tortoises that I’ll never be able to use anywhere else in the world – in all probability! I’m also involved in a host of other disciplines, dangerously too much a jack of all trades. This makes CPD all the more important, as ‘deskilling’ is a classic complication os island work. In truth I am ‘skilling’ considerably in other areas – they’re just not very transferable.

Anyway – keep up the good work – it’s a fantastic facility. Glad you don’t have too many presenters with streamed video footage as our Internet can’t take it and it freezes.

Best wishes

Joe (aka Jonathan)

Joe Hollins MA VetMB MRCVS

Senior Veterinary Officer

Island of St Helena