Hospitals in Merrit, Oliver and Salmon Arm will get 7.5-million-dollars in permanent funding from the province to help stabilize physician emergency-room coverage.
Health Minister Adrian Dix says challenges like worker recruitment and retention and the ongoing toxic-drug crisis are more prominent in rural and remote communities.
Interior Health is working with local physicians on the three service contracts for emergency services at the hospitals.
Interior Health says a new compensation model for physicians in rural communities will pay them for their time spent at the hospital caring for patients, rather than the fee-for-service payment model.