An Emergency Medical Services (EMS) team out of Radville has been nominated for an award recognizing excellence in health care in Saskatchewan.

The Radville EMS is one of 18 nominees for the 2005 Saskatchewan Healthcare Excellence Awards (SHEA), an initiative of AIDS Programs of Saskatchewan.

Of these 18 nominees, a maximum of 10 will receive awards at a ceremony on Saturday, Jan. 15, which will be held at the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts in Regina.

The Radville EMS, which provides service to a patient base of over 3,000 residents, is one of five groups nominated for the SHEA. The remaining nominees are individuals.

"There's quite a number of groups this year who are finalists," said Christine Smith, executive director of AIDS Programs in South Saskatchewan.

Smith said the purpose of SHEA is to recognize successes within Saskatchewan health care and "show health care isn't all the doom and gloom of cutbacks and budgets, that there's some great work going on with some great people."

The Radville EMS consists of three full-time EMTs and five drivers, two of whom are part-time. They are Leanna Wallin (formerly of Weyburn), Dawn Geiger, Wayne Geiger, James Bjorklund, Rick Daley, Dwight Fisher and Merv Lansdell.

Dr. Werner Oberholzer, who nominated the Radville EMS for the award, said the crew have sacrificed work, family and social commitments to be on-call and ready to respond to emergencies.

They are also responsible for maintaining the ambulance and equipment from day-to-day, as well as organizing fund-raisers for equipment within the ambulance, said Oberholzer.

Clients are people living in rural Saskatchewan, and presents the unique challenge of navigating back roads and overcoming bad driving conditions. The ambulance even uses a sledge that can be pulled behind a snowmobile for clients that live in areas not accessible by the ambulance.

Also, the EMS is also needed at the local nursing home and at the Radville Marian Health Centre, which is a 24-hour emergency centre.

"This is small-town rural Saskatchewan, and these are the people that keep an ailing health system alive and functioning," said Oberholzer.

"The community feels safe and secure in the knowledge that help is as far as the 9-1-1 button on the phone. This makes people settle in communities. It makes elderly people retire here without fear of isolation. Business thrive on the knowledge that timely care can be provided to employers and employees alike.

"This keeps rural Saskatchewan alive," he added.

This is the first time a group from the Sun Country Health Region has been nominated for SHEA, which is in its fourth year.

The 18 nominees were chosen by a special selection committee, who invite nominations from the public and then grade each one using a rating scale, with such criteria as quality of service, innovation and so on.

The gala dinner on Jan. 15 is open to the public. For more information, check out the SHEA website at: www.sheawards.ca