Atlantic health-care recruitment strategy sets sights on Dubai, Ireland

A physician recruitment strategy that stems from an Atlantic premiers meeting earlier this year is seeing the four Atlantic provinces collaborate, rather than compete, on recruitment.

Called the Atlantic Recruitment working group, the hope is the provinces will work together as a region of 2.5 million people and potentially pool resources.

Dubai, India, the Philippines, and Ireland have all been floated as places of interest to recruit health-care workers.

New Brunswick Health Minister Bruce Fitch says there’s work underway to plan for these recruitment trips, all together.

“We can be working together as opposed to opposing each other and working separately,” he said.

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Minister Tom Osborne agreed, confirming he’s had conversations with Minister Fitch in recent weeks about a trip to Dubai, and with Prince Edward Island about a trip to Ireland.

“I know P.E.I. has been in Ireland looking to provide a pathway home for Canadian physicians, so we've had some discussion with P.E.I.,” he said. “Maybe we can look at going together, advertising together and getting more recognition, more notice by pooling our resources.”

In an emailed statement, Nova Scotia’s Office of Healthcare Professionals Recruitment confirmed there’s been a concerted effort to work with one another, saying the focus is on international recruitment and not pulling from other provinces.

Minister Osborne said there’s also been some discussion of centres of excellence – where a location would focus on a particular medical specialty, and other provinces would help in establishing it.

But he says it’s a longer-term discussion.

“Already we send patients from this province to Halifax for certain procedures. You look at organ donation, for example, there's a greater desire to work together as an Atlantic region in some of those areas,” he said.

But there are some strategies provinces are doing on their own.

“We have some of the most attractive incentives in all of Canada. We're offering physicians up to $450,000 to relocate to Newfoundland and Labrador…We have a come-home incentive focused on a number of health care disciplines. And we've recruited over 120 individuals based on our come-home incentive. So we have had success,” Minister Osborne said.

Neither minister confirmed when a trip to Dubai would happen, only that it’s in the works to try and convince health-care workers there to come to Atlantic Canada.