With many people and medical professionals still processing the information of the provincial government's announcement to change from 12 separate health regions into one health authority earlier this week... The Saskatchewan Emergency Medical Services Association(SEMSA) is remaining optimistic and looking forward to the future.

"We do support the initiative and we support that we're part of it. We are certainly looking towards what else would come out, as we all know the details will dictate how that impacts the services that are being provided today, service providers and certainly front-line professionals. As we work through to get answer to (our) questions, we continue to work with the government to try and achieve their goals," explained SEMSA President Kyle Sereda. 

The SEMSA stated they anticipated the change to one health authority since August of last year, but still have a lot of questions to ask the provincial government.

"What we're doing today and how do we get to where we want to go, until we know what that end result looks like, all of our questions are around how we do manage that transition. We hope to be apart of the transition consultation, as a stake holder and a service delivery provider, thus far the government has been very transparent in working with us."

As many have voiced their concerns over the recent announcement, the SEMSA are welcoming the change, hoping it will aide in paramedics being able to provide residents with the most efficient medical services.

Sereda said they're hoping this transition would eliminate shortfalls the EMS currently face.

"If we're able to have a larger governing system that would allow us to work towards being more effective with our responses and one of the things that we would be able to utilize differently would be paramedics and their responses towards trying to connect patients with services in their local area that might better serve them."

He added that being able to have the resources to treat patients in their home would be another proactive idea to address moving forward.

The SEMSA represents 75 of the 104 EMS operations throughout Saskatchewan.