Sask. extends incentives to attract health-care workers to rural areas

The Saskatchewan government is putting up more money to get health-care workers into rural areas of the province.

The government announced Thursday it’s putting up another $3 million to extend the Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive into 2024.

The incentive, which was originally announced in October of 2022 and was expanded the following month, offers incentives of between $30,000 and $50,000 over three years for health-care workers hired to work in any of nine high-priority positions in 54 rural and remote locations across the province.

According to the government, the incentive has helped in the hiring of 226 new employees.​

“Filling hard-to-recruit positions is key to stabilizing and strengthening health-care services in rural and northern communities,” Rural and Remote Health Minister Tim McLeod said in a media release. “Continuing the Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive program supports the success we are seeing under our Health Human Resources Action Plan.”

That plan was unveiled in September of 2022, with the goal of adding more than 1,000 health-care professionals to the province’s workforce over the span of several years.​

Some rural areas in Saskatchewan have experienced disruptions at their health-care facilities due to a lack of staffing, so the government has been attempting to shore up its workforce to address that problem.

More details on the Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive can be found on the government’s website.

The province also is offering incentives of up to $100,000 for a five-year return-in-service agreement for perfusionists interested in working for the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA). Perfusionists work with cardiac surgeons, anesthesiologists and others in operating rooms.

As it has done previously, the government provided an update Thursday on the progress of the Health Human Resources Action Plan.

The release said the SHA has hired 877 nursing graduates from Saskatchewan and outside of the province since December of 2022. As well, 185 registered nurses from the Philippines are enrolled in the Transition to Nursing in Canada Education Program, with 89 of these already in the province to receive their clinical training.

Saskatchewan’s nurses have long raised concerns about staff shortages and burnout.

The government noted that, to date, 206 positions have been filled of the 250 new and enhanced permanent full-time positions targeted in nine high-priority occupations in rural and remote areas of the province.

More than 200 applications have been received for the enhanced Rural Physician Incentive Program, which offers up to $200,000 over five years to family doctors who practise or are returning to practise in rural Saskatchewan. The government said around 80 of those applications have been approved.

Eight of the 12 physician assistant positions have been posted across the province, the government said, and 171 applications have been received since April 1 for the Final Clinical Placement Bursary.