U.S. Senator Dick Durbin has announced new funding and other initiatives to address a chronic, and worsening, shortage of healthcare providers in rural areas.
Durbin visited Lincoln Memorial Hospital Monday to announce the new efforts, which include $2 million to expand the nursing program at Illinois State University, and $1 million for a Rural Health Institute at the SIU School of Medicine in Springfield.
Durbin notes that while urban areas of the state have 90 doctors for every 100,000 residents, the number is only half that in rural areas.
And the shortfall has been getting worse since the COVID pandemic.
