VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – A new deal is in place between the province and resident doctors at hospitals.
    
It’s a four-year agreement that provides a two-point-eight per cent pay hike and replaces a contract that expired in 2010. It’ll take effect in stages in January and April of next year.
    
The deal affects post-graduate doctors who are working in hospitals in order to complete their education.

The agreement was reached under the province’s Co-operative Gains Mandate, which means no new money will be provided for wage hikes and the parties must find savings within existing budgets to produce salary increases.
    
Resident doctors are post-graduate physician trainees who’ve finished their classroom work and now work in health-care settings to complete their practical education.
    
In June, the B.C. government reached a four-year deal with the B.C. Medical Association, which represents 10,000 doctors, including specialists and family physicians throughout the province.
    
The government says the agreement would provide funding to increase patient access to doctors in rural areas, and also address the issue of recruitment and retention of specialists.