B.C. pledges funding for hundreds more health-care training seats

The B.C. government has announced it is funding 322 new health-care training seats at institutions around the province.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says two dozen seats for urgently needed medical lab assistants will be established at Camosun College, Vancouver Community College and Thompson Rivers University's open learning program.

Advanced-care paramedics will get training at the Justice Institute of B.C., while seats are also being fast-tracked for respiratory therapists at Thompson Rivers.

The government says intake for more than two-thirds of those seats will begin "by fall 2023," although some will start as early as this summer.

The province also plans to fund $4.5 million in bursaries to attract internationally educated health professionals who want to move to the province.

"Building up and supporting our health workforce is our biggest priority," said Dix in a statement Tuesday.

"We know more needs to be done, and we will continue our work to grow B.C.’s health-care workforce," he added.

With files from The Canadian Press.