Government is expanding the criteria for health care professionals through its Come Home incentive targeting Newfoundlanders and Labradorians working in other jurisdictions.

The incentive will now include clinical psychologists, respiratory therapists, radiation therapists, cardiology technologists and medical physicists.

$50,000 is being offered for professionals who sign a three-year return-in-service agreement.

Incentives of $25,000 are also being offered to professionals who weren’t born, educated, trained, or performed their residency in NL.

Health Minister Tom Osborne says as of December, over 30 healthcare professionals have been recruited directly because of the incentives, which equates to about $2.2 million in offers being made and accepted. As well, there have been an additional $1 million in offers made that they are waiting to be accepted.

Osborne says offering the incentives benefits the whole healthcare sector because the incentives that get people here will in turn help those who are feeling the strain of being under staffed.