A new announcement by the government Tuesday is aimed at making the health care system better for citizens and the approach is all about team work.

The government is spending over $3.5 million to create what is best described as a one-stop shop for patients.

Eight communities across Saskatchewan will test out what the government calls primary health centres housing all manner of health care professionals including doctors, nurses and therapists.

For example, someone suffering from mental health can see all those professionals needed to help them in one place. The program is meant to not only improve patient care but also to streamline the whole approach.

Health Minister Don McMorris said "it may not be the physician that person needs to see, it may be a nurse, it may be a physical therapist."

He maintains often walk-in clinics and emergency rooms are filled with people trying to see a doctor when what they might need is addictions help, or a diabetic team. He argues this type of approach allows them to be directed to the exact carer needed to help them.

"They would go into the clinic and be assessed and then see the proper provider right there."

The physician heading up the primary care centre in Yorkton thinks it is the right direction to go. While it means a patient might not see a doctor, he argues he will actually help with the doctor shortage.

"The doctors don't want to be that solo physician in a small town providing the care that has been done over many years, they want to be work as part of a team because that is how their training teaches them to provide service."

The model is already running successfully in Meadow Lake and will soon appear in Yorkton, Leader, Lloydminster, Moose Jaw, Regina's inner-city and the Whitecap Dakota First Nation.