The All Nations Healing Hospital and the Saskatchewan Health Authority have agreed to work together to improve the health of First Nations people.

The two parties formalized their relationship Thursday with the signing of a memorandum of understanding.

The agreement will use a collaborative approach which combines traditional medicine and spiritual healing practices with western medicine.

The MOU includes the hospital, File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council and SHA.

The first collaboration between the All Nations Healing Hospital and the Saskatchewan Health Authority is the Pasikow Muskwa Healing Centre’s satellite dialysis unit.

“As a health authority, we can learn from the example that has been set during the development and now into the operation of the satellite dialysis unit,” SHA board chair Dick Carter says in a released statement.

“They have truly consulted with the community, engaged the patients and worked to create a health-care model that is not only culturally responsive, but blends Western medicine with First Nations knowledge and healing practices.”

File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council Chief Edmund Bellegarde says the healing centre is proof the two communities can work together.

“The Pasikow Muskwa Healing Centre is evidence of our belief in the spirit and intent of recognizing our treaty right to health, and is a step forward on the path toward reconciliation,” he says.

(Photo: left to right, All Nations Healing Hospital board of directors chair and File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council Chief Edmund Bellegarde and Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone. Photo courtesy of saskhealthauthority.ca.)