The Alberta government pledged Thursday to earmark $158 million in the Feb. 28 budget to frontline health care and medical staff.
Health Minister Jason Copping said an aging population is increasing demand and the province’s hospitals need more physicians and health care professionals. More than half of the amount budgeted, $90 million, will be directed to the recruitment of doctors for rural areas, which are especially under-serviced.
The government intends to offer financial incentives to physicians who will open practices in rural communities, and spend $7 million for targeted recruitment of internationally trained nurses from the United Kingdom and the United States.
The province will spend $1 million to fund the provincial Nurse Navigator program, directed at nurses immigrating to Alberta….