Yvonne Libbus, a psychiatrist at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital, said pay inequities could be at the root of challenges in recruiting psychiatrists outside the Halifax area.

Cape Breton has several unfilled positions.

Libbus said she learned that psychiatrists in the Halifax-Dartmouth area make between $50,000 and $55,000 more than those in the rest of the province and they aren't required to work as many on-call hours.

"I can't really justify the pay imbalance," said Libbus. "It needs to be made right."

She said the department of psychiatry in the eastern zone has approached Doctors Nova Scotia and the Department of Health with a suggestion to attract more psychiatrists to rural areas.

They are proposing that psychiatrists working an hour outside the HRM receive 10 per cent more pay than psychiatrists in the HRM earn, while those working two hours away receive 20 per cent more and those working three hours or more from Halifax receive 30 per cent more pay.

"The workload that we're faced with and the responsibility and the oversight, it's a large responsibility and so I think that needs to be remunerated," she said. "And if it's valued in a money situation, we are going to get more people here.

"We think it's doable. We think it's financially reasonable, and I think that can attract some maybe new residents and new people to Nova Scotia to look at areas outside of Halifax."

Libbus said there are currently about 120 psychiatrists practising in the Halifax-Dartmouth area and 11 in the health authority's eastern zone. Recruitment is ongoing for five positions.

The Department of Health declined a CBC interview request but emailed a statement saying it's aware of the issues around the compensation of psychiatrists in the HRM and other regions. It said the department is having discussions with psychiatrists and is looking at options.