Health Minister Tom Osborne says a $200,000 dollar signing bonus is being offered to Canadian physicians willing to sign on for service in Bonavista for at least two years.
Osborne says it is the most lucrative incentive package in the country.
He was responding to questions raised by Bonavista MHA Craig Pardy about ongoing efforts to recruit physicians to the region and restore staffing levels to allow full-time ER services at the local hospital.
Bonavista Peninsula Health Centre
(Photo via Eastern Health.)
The minister told the House of Assembly that there are offers being made to seven health professionals, and they now have approval for Eastern Health to offer a $200,000 dollar signing bonus to physicians willing to sign on for two years’ service. That, says Osborne is in addition to the $100,000 dollar Come Home Year signing bonus being offered to physicians coming in from outside the province.
Osborne says the incentives will be offered outside Bonavista as well: It will be rolled out in New-Wes-Valley in the coming days, and then they will be looking at Baie Verte after that.
He indicates there is no cap on what government is willing to spend.
Osborne says they will have “whatever money it takes” to fill the positions.
Members of the citizen’s coalition were in the gallery at the House of Assembly Wednesday, and Osborne calls a meeting held with them at the invitation of Craig Pardy “productive.”
The MHA for Bonavista says he is happy to hear of the new government incentives to get doctors to work in the area, but it’s unfortunate that it may have taken a loss of life to get it.
During Question Period yesterday, Craig Pardy made reference to a man named Charlie Marsh, who he says died in an ambulance while being transported to Clarenville for treatment.
Pardy says the big challenge with recruitment is the gap in pay between what’s offered at the Bonavista hospital, and other “category A” sites.
He says Bonavista doctors were making about 60 per cent of what’s being paid at other sites. Now, what they’re hopefully moving towards, according to Pardy, is parity where saving a life in Bonavista is valued at the same level as other areas.
