N.L.'s 'Come Home' incentive has brought back more than 30 health-care workers, says Osborne

Health Minister Tom Osborne says the Newfoundland and Labrador government has managed to lure more than 30 health-care professionals back to the province through its "Come Home" incentive program.

The program is aimed at recruiting and retaining health-care workers who were born and raised in Newfoundland and Labrador but left the province, along with those who were trained, performed their residency, were educated orpractised for longer than a year in N.L.or have other ties.

Osborne said the provincial government had committed$2.2 million in offers made and accepted as of December.

"There's also another $1 million worth ofoffers that have been made. We're just waiting for people to accept those," the health minister said Thursday morning in St. John's after announcing the program's expansion.

"Based on the success of the Come Home incentive, we're expanding it to other health disciplines to help recruit those disciplines to the province as well. Recruitment and retention has been a main priority for government."

The incentive was launched in October with a focus on bringing backphysicians, nurses and paramedics whohave been living outside the province for at least six months.

The expandedprogram will now also target clinical psychologists, respiratory therapists andradiation therapists, includingcardiology technologists and medical physicists.

The province's staffing shortages among nurses, doctors and, most recently, radiation therapists has been well documented over the last two years.

Seven radiation therapists resigned from the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Centre in St. John's in 2022 alone, forcing the closure of one unit and the diversion of some patients to Toronto.

"The disciplines that we've added are areas that we need to be more focused on [in] recruitment. Our incentives needed to improve because those are areas of significant challenge across the country as well. We needed to be competitive," said Osborne.

"We are focused on being competitive, we're focused on retention, in addition to these recruitment initiatives we have in place."

Interim NDP Leader and health critic Jim Dinn said any initiative to recruit health-care workers in areas where there are gaps is a positive. But while most have to agree to a three-year commitment physicians must commit to five years Dinn said the question remains is what will stop them from leaving after the end of their term.

"What is the government's commitment to make sure that the issues that drove them out in the first placeare going to be remedied?" he said.

"There's got to be something more than just simply saying, 'We're going to bring people in,' and that will solve the problem. It's got to go beyond that."

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