Oliver, the mayor of BC, is calling on the provincial government to make changes to BC’s loan forgiveness program.
Mayor Martin Johansen says he was recently made aware that the city had not included front-line health care workers in the program.
Johansson said, “I had a front-line health care worker … express some concern that we were no longer on the loan forgiveness program.”
“I’m not 100 percent sure … when we were taken off the program, we were definitely on the program in 2015.”
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The city currently has a long unvaccinated patient list, and South Okanagan General Hospital regularly sees temporary hour cuts and closures due to staffing issues.
But despite the troubling health care situation, Oliver is not on the list of recognized under-served communities.
“It’s on the verge of collapse, but what I mean to say is that in an individual context it’s important that whether or not you have the ER open can make a difference. So, it’s hanging by a thread,” he said. Said.
“It’s up to someone that’s able to do a shift, that they’re not sick, that they’re able to come in and do their shift. We’re on the verge of collapse because it’s about one person being able to keep that hospital open.” Which is very scary.
The matter is not unique to the city of Oliver, as the South Similkameen Health Center in Keremios has also seen several temporary closures and cut hours due to staffing challenges.
The community is also not involved in the program.
“Keremos now has lab services one day a week and it’s for really important bloodwork. Well, the lab technicians are part of the loan forgiveness program and Keremos is also not eligible for the loan forgiveness program,” Johansson said.
“The whole system is kind of broken and it needs to be looked at again and a way to be implemented across the province because it’s a good example of where something is falling apart and there’s no incentive for anyone to come.” No and will work there.”
Meanwhile, Johansson has spent months looking at the loan forgiveness process and says the eligibility criteria need to change.
“The problem is they; They’ve made it so that you’re either eligible for the loan forgiveness program, or you’re not — it’s all or nothing.
“Whereas when you talk about physicians, there is a sliding scale on compensation.”
The Ministry of Secondary Education and Future Skills is in charge of the programme. Johansson says he hopes to connect with Minister Selina Robinson in the near future to discuss how communities like Oliver’s can be included in the program.
“I want to talk to them specifically about some kind of sliding scale for loan forgiveness — so that when you’re working in a real remote underserved community, maybe you get a little bit more loan forgiveness And when you’re working in a community that’s not so remote, not so small, that you get a little less,” Johansen said.
“But you still get loan forgiveness because our health care system is really struggling right now and one or two people could put us in jeopardy.”
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