BC NDP pledges to increase health care workforce, empower midwives

At a campaign stop in Vernon Saturday, BC NDP leader David Eby turned his attention to health care, saying his party’s plan is to focus on increasing the workforce.

Eby says if elected, the BC NDP would earmark $75 million for targeted student loan forgiveness with the goal of drawing doctors to smaller, rural centres.

This comes as the province continues to see staffing challenges at emergency rooms in the Interior.

“We estimate that this will provide targeted financial support for doctors, nurses, and health science professionals who choose to move to rural areas and make a five-year commitment for thousands of professionals every year,” he said at the event.

“[This will remove] the red tape that prevents doctors and nurses from moving around between hospitals to provide support where a rural emergency room might be at risk of closure.”

Eby is also looking to expand the role of midwives by allowing them to provide medical abortions and IUD insertions.

“Their work is limited,” he said.

“Outdated rules say that they’re not able to support women in different aspects of reproductive health. We’re going to fix that.”

Eby says this is especially important for women in rural communities where they often have to travel long distances to access reproductive care.

“John Rustad’s plan for cuts and his anti-choice candidates would put access to reproductive health care at risk – including free prescription birth control,” the party said in a news release Saturday.

Other aspects of the party’s plan include getting out-of-province health-care workers working sooner by providing them with provisional licences right away; removing red tape for workers traveling to help in remote communities; and removing reliance on private staffing agencies.

With files from David Nadalini.