BC Election Campaigns Promise Support for Doctors, Seniors

British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby is making election campaign pledges of a new training program for international medical graduates and discounted tuition or loan forgiveness for health-care workers willing to move to rural communities. Eby spent Friday in Surrey, at a campaign stop at the site for a new medical school, while B.C. Conservative interim leader Lorne Doerkson was in Coquitlam laying out his promises for seniors, which include giving those waiting for long-term care beds “portable public funding” so they can pick where they want to be, including in non-government facilities. Eby said if the New Democrats are elected on Oct. 24, the new medical school at Simon Fraser University will offer a first-of-its-kind “bridging to practice” training for qualified foreign graduates already living in the province but who are unable to practice family medicine because of a lack of residency spots.