Plan to attract new doctors
by Nicholas Johansen · CastanetBC NDP leader David Eby was in Vernon Saturday to announce a new campaign promise that will work to attract new healthcare graduates to smaller, underserved B.C. communities.
Eby appeared in Vernon on the campaign trail Saturday morning with Vernon-Monashee candidate Harwinder Sandhu, Kelowna Centre candidate Loyal Woolridge and Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream candidate Anna Warwick Sears to make his latest campaign announcement.
Eby said if his party is elected this fall, his government will invest $75 million into a new program that will provide student loan forgiveness for doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff in exchange for a five-year commitment to a rural, underserved community in B.C.
Eby said individuals will be provided with $10,000 to $20,000 in student loan forgiveness. He said he expects this new program will attract thousands of new healthcare staff to the province from across Canada.
He added the five-year term of the program will hopefully encourage healthcare staff to set down roots in small communities for even longer.
Emergency rooms across B.C.'s Interior have struggled with temporary closures for several years due to staffing issues. Eby noted that jurisdictions across the globe are struggling with healthcare worker shortages.
He added his government has connected 250,000 British Columbians to a family doctor over the past year, and another 160,000 are expected to find a family doctor in the next six months. B.C. has also seen more than 800 new family doctors and 6,300 new nurses in the past year.
Another part of Saturday's announcement included providing provisional licenses for healthcare workers from approved out-of-province jurisdictions, with the goal of getting these workers on the job sooner.
Eby also said a new NDP government would expand the role of midwives to be able to provide medical abortions and IUD insertions. He said this is particularly important for women in remote, rural communities who may not have the same access to reproductive care as those in urban centres.