Saskatchewan’s minister for rural health visited communities in northeastern Saskatchewan yesterday.

Randy Weekes met with village officials and medical staff from Cumberland House and Creighton.

He says challenges of distance, assisted living and getting specialists into the communities are just some of the hurdles facing the area.

Saskatchewan is currently examining a new health-care delivery model for rural clinics.

It involves having nurses and advanced paramedics providing service at night so local doctors don’t always have to be on call.

However, Weekes notes Creighton frequently uses physicians from Manitoba so the proposed model may not be a fit there.

“It may not be a fit for this community but all the health regions are aware of collaborative emergency centres and they are taking a look at which communities collaborative emergency centres would fit.”

He adds different health regions are looking at the proposed system to see if it could work for them.