The B.C. Ministry of Health notified the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) in late June that it will extend the Provincial Rural and Retention Incentives (PRRI) program until September 30, 2025.
“While we strongly support the extension of the PRRI program for another three months, unfortunately, many communities struggling with the retention and recruitment of health care workers, such as Cranbrook and Kimberly, are still excluded,” says HEU secretary-business manager Lynn Bueckert. “It is also disappointing that our members working in private long-term care and assisted living sectors do not receive this benefit.”
HEU is participating in a review of the PRRI program with the Ministry and will provide feedback on its impact on working and caring conditions.
The PRRI program was developed to ensure health care staffing levels are met in the province’s underserved communities, so that residents and vulnerable populations, including First Nations, living in rural and remote areas of B.C. have access to health care.
The PRRI program includes three incentives for all Facilities and Community Health members who work in the designated health areas – a retention incentive, a travel incentive, and an enhanced referral incentive.
In these communities, workers receive an incentive of up to $2,000 per quarter to a maximum of $8,000 per year until September of this year, provided they have regular employment status at the end of each quarter. There is also premium pay for staff travelling more than 40km to work at their job site and a referral bonus for staff that helps recruit new employees.
Introduced in 2021 to incentivize retention and minimize churn of health care workers in rural areas, the PRRI was initially prototyped in Northern Health’s Northeast Health Service Delivery Area, Prince Rupert, and Hazelton and then expanded to Grand Forks in Interior Health in 2022.