The BC government has announced they are taking new steps in an initiative to attract more doctors and nurses from the United States to work in British Columbia.
The Province is doing this by fast-tracking the recognition of credentials and launching a co-ordinated, targeted recruitment campaign in the US.
According to the Province, BC connected more people to a primary care provider last year than ever before.
The BC government says that with all that is happening in the US, they are hopeful that some care givers will want to move to Canada to work and are trying to streamline that process.
“With the uncertainty and chaos happening south of our border, we have an unprecedented opportunity to attract skilled health-care workers interested in moving to Canada,” said Josie Osborne, Minister of Health.
“Our message to doctors and nurses working in the US is that now is the time to come to British Columbia. We will welcome you to our beautiful province where together we can strengthen public health care, deliver services for people and build healthy communities.”
In order to achieve this initiative, the Province is working with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC on how to best enable certified US-trained doctors to become fully licensed in BC without the need for further training, assessment or examination.
The changes to legislation aimed at attracting more US doctors is similar to initiatives conducted by the Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick governments.
In terms of bringing more US-trained nurses into BC, the goal and process is similar, as the Province is working with the BC College of Nurses and Midwives to streamline the process.
Once implemented, the Province will be co-ordinated marketing campaigns in Washington, Oregon and California this spring.
In these campaigns, BC will highlight job opportunities in the areas that doctors and nurses are most needed, including cancer care centres, emergency departments and promoting rural communities facing healthcare worker shortages.
Last year, a BC set a new record for connecting doctors to patients with nearly 250,000 people being attached to a primary care provider.
This figure is an increase from the 186,000 people connected in 2023 and 131,000 people connected in 2022.
“Our government is working hard to strengthen health care by hiring and training more family doctors and nurse practitioners so you get better, faster care when and where you need it,” Osborne said.
“We’re starting to make significant progress with more people connected to primary care providers in 2024 than ever before. There is still more to be done – and that’s why we are ramping up our efforts to recruit health-care workers from other jurisdictions.”
These campaigns will launch and be implemented in the next few months, according to the Province.
