CANADA, May 1 - Jennifer Rice, Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Health –

“By incentivizing allied health professionals to settle and practice in rural regions, we can improve access to medical services for people living there. It means people won’t have to travel as far for medical services, improving access to care and health equity for people living in rural and remote areas across B.C.”

Kane Tse, president, Health Sciences Association (HSA) –

“I hear every day from CT technologists, lab technologists, radiation therapists, PET technologists, respiratory therapists and many other specialized health professionals struggling through dire shortages and crushing workload. On their behalf, HSA welcomes these initiatives, developed by Health Minister Adrian Dix and his team after many front-line meetings. We believe they will help increase health-science professional recruitment in rural communities and in urban facilities facing the most severe shortages.”

Stephanie Smith, president, BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) –

“Representing over 25,000 workers in B.C.’s health-care sector, the BCGEU welcomes the ministry’s initiatives to strengthen the long-term sustainability of our province’s public health-care system. The investments will ensure more people have access to health care in remote communities. It’s also critical that staff have the mental-health and professional-development supports that this will help deliver for workers across the province.”

Lynn Bueckert, interim secretary-business manager, Hospital Employee’s Union –

“We applaud the Ministry of Health’s expanding efforts to support public health-care services through the new measures announced today. These additional tools, along with the government’s recent expansion of the provincial rural-retention incentives program to attract and retain workers from across the health-care team and the health-care access program that has brought 7,000 more care aides into the system, will continue to have a positive impact on the working and caring conditions in B.C.’s hospitals and long-term care homes.”