The South Central Health District (SCHD) has accumulated nearly $250,000 in the last two months through the Tatagwa View fund-raising campaign, and another fund-raising initiative involving the sale of grain will soon get off the ground.

This announcement was made at a public information meeting held Thursday evening at the Souris Valley Extended Care Centre (SVECC), during a presentation on the district's proposed long-term care facility by vice-president of operations Lloyd Searcy.

However, few people not directly connected to the district heard the news, as public turn-out was extremely low for the meeting. Board chair Ernest Elder, in his introductory remarks, said the turnout by members of the public was "disappointing."

Searcy said about 12 sponsorship of beds for $2,000 have been sold, along with four $50,000 sponsorships of "houses," or sections of rooms within the facility. Along with other donations and fund-raising initiatives, this amounts to roughly $250,000.

He also announced the district intends to start a third fund-raising initiative: the selling of grain donated by farmers. Searcy said as part of the campaign, local farmers are invited to donate grain to the SCHD, which they will in turn sell. The profits are then put toward Tatagwa View.

In return, farmers receive a receipt for a charitable donation; this would be beneficial to farmers, as they would receive something for their troubles as opposed to nothing if they are unable to move the grain.

"If it gets wet, the grain has no value," said Searcy.

The district must first contact the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Pioneer Grains, as well as get permission from the Canadian Wheat Board, before the new fund-raiser can get underway.

A detailed presentation was also made on the new facility's layout. Searcy said Tatagwa View, which will house 135 long-term care patients upon completion, is classified as a "consolidated health complex;" as well as housing patients, there will also be administration offices, a large kitchen and a district laundry in the building.

The vice-president said it was designed so that a new general hospital, entitled Phase 2, could one day be attached "seamlessly" to the Tatagwa View facility.

But Tatagwa View must be built first, noted Elder, before the new hospital. "Until that phase is built, there won't be a second phase, which is acute care," he said.

Searcy said that, once the process of acquiring permits was completed, work would begin on a diversion channel for the facility's "retention pond," or large well located in back of the building to contain flood water on Coulter Field.

Searcy also said the pond would act to heat and cool the building through the extraction of geothermal energy from the pond; basically, coolness would be extracted from the water in summer, and heat would be extracted in spring and fall.

The unique and innovative nature of this plan, hinted Searcy, may also land the SCHD a federal grant of some kind.

This new facility is needed, added vice-president of patient services Marga Cugnet, to provide a less-institutionalized and more home-like environment for long-term care patients, as this helps lessen the impact of moving from a home into a facility.

The SVECC currently lacks that type of environment, partly because of its former designation as a mental institution; Cugnet said most people screened to become residents at SVECC don't want to go there because of the conditions.

Searcy was also enlisted to speak about the finances of the district. The budget is operating without a deficit this year, said Searcy, but only because of numerous cuts the district was forced to make.

Earlier in the year, the district projected a $262,000 deficit for 2001-2002, due to a number of large increases; Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) contract adjustments, for example, cost $167,000, while heating costs increased by $100,000.

The district had hoped the provincial government would undercut the deficit, as they had done with other districts in previous years. However, said Searcy, they were told districts were not allowed to have large deficits this year.

To compensate, the district made cuts to a number of areas, such as the equipment repair budget and facility planning budget. Although service to residents of the district was not reduced, "it did affect people, there's no question of that," he said.

CEO Lee Spencer also gave a brief presentation on the Fyke Commission on Medicare report. The report, which was released earlier this year, contains a number of sweeping changes to the health care system, such as changing to a primary care system, establishing 10-14 regional hospitals, changing the number of health districts to about nine to 11 districts and creating a quality care council.

Spencer said the SCHD supports many of these resolutions, such as establishing primary care. There are a number of unanswered questions, however, as they do not know what the regional hospitals would look like, and reducing the number of health districts was "debatable."

Spencer said there are currently seven "grassroots" committees, made of health care officials, currently examining the various sections of the Commission on Medicare report.

A presentation was also made by health promotion consultant Donna Wolfe on non-smoking. She talked about the adverse effects of smoking, as well as some of the moves made by the SCHD towards non-smoking in Weyburn.