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It is a credit to the movers and staff for things to be as completely set up only the first day after a move like this one. The main lobby and waiting room has only two boxes testifying that the move had taken place at all. The Pasquia Health District handles the communities of Kelvington, Rose Valley, Porcupine Plain, Hudson Bay and Tisdale administering and directing health services for this large area. Though health districts have been around for a few years they are not well understood. With Saskatchewan being the first place in Canada to have, first hospitalisation, then full Medicare, health administrative regions had always been a part of the scene, as the Swift Current Region saw the piloting of the full Medicare system. It was during the Romanow's first term that the central administration of health services was parceled out to Districts and placed under the control of District boards. Though the concept was to give some local input into the delivery of services, the first few years of the operation were appointed, not elected boards. Many political and public health critics have accused the government policy as a thinly disguised means of off loading criticism to the boards for the drastically reduced spending in health services, as part of the government's mission to balance its budget. Though there is the appearance of decentralised health administration, the actual business of health care is the expenditure of resources and with the budget being centrally controlled, the Districts can only do as best they can with the money available, while taking the heat off the provincial government. No one can claim cost savings with decentralisation, as facilities like this have been created throughout the province, taking money directly out of the operations of hospitals and further reducing the level of medical care, province wide. Medical care, being one of the largest expenditures in the provincial budget, always has and will most likely continue to be, a heated political issue. The former government lead by Grant Devine a province wide hospital construction programme was one of the methods that government used to get itself into serious financial problems and since their defeat the present government has been attacked for growing waiting lists for surgery and hospital closures. The most notable being the construction of two new hospitals in Regina and closing the most modern hospital in the province, the Plains, which had been built to provide hospital care as a "base hospital" for rural Saskatchewan. The Plains Hospital in Regina is presently being vacated and will be out of service in October. But in Tisdale the Pasquia Health District will celebrate the opening of their new facility with an open house 1:00 - 5:00 on October 7 with coffee and donuts.

(For an earlier article on this project see the building under construction.)