The Board of Sun Country Regional Health Authority (SCRHA) will ask SAHO, the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organization, to recommend improvements to the 911 emergency system.

A resolution to that effect was approved at the Jan. 24 meeting of the SCRHA board in Weyburn. The resolution will be presented to the SAHO annual convention April 23-24 in Saskatoon for debate.

Board chairman Earl Kickley said, "The issue of cell phone coverage, and 911 responses, is a larger issue in some other areas of the province but also a concern in SCRHA."

The board also asks that ambulance dispatchers all over the province be trained in the numbering system used to identify land locations in rural Saskatchewan.

"Emergency dispatchers use street addresses in the cities to direct emergency vehicles, but in the rural areas a different numbering system is used." noted Kickley. "Some dispatchers have yet to receive a proper training in the use of that system."

"The board wants to see a continual improvement in the 911 system so all residents receive prompt emergency assistance when they need it," Kickley says.

Regional health authorities in the province make recommendations about improving the health care system to SAHO, which carries those recommendations to the federal and provincial governments.