It was the end of the road for the Cypress Health Region's board meetings yesterday after 15 years of service.

The lengthy meeting entailed a lot of reflection on the region and what it has become, as well as two presentations were made to the board.

Larry Allsen - interim CEO, CFO, and the vice president of corporate services for the Cypress Health Region - said he's still processing the move to one health authority.

"I don't know if it's really sunk in yet, that we're not going to be a region anymore," he said. "I think that reality will sink in as months go on. I'm not saying we don't make decisions (as of now) but, we have another chain of authority to follow now and what that's going to look like, we're unsure."

During the next three months, Allsen expects a lot more fleshing out of details within the new Saskatchewan Health Authority.

"It's probably going to have some impact, I don't know what the impact it's going to be," Allsen explained. "Any change is going to have some impact on people. If I just look at our region, if I look at the people that work on the front line, the managers that they report to, those managers report to a director. That structure is not going to change, and if it does, it won't change for four to five years."

One thing that stood out for the board and the region while they were reflecting was the up-to-date infrastructure within the southwest.

"I look at our infrastructure within our region and I go [municipality by municipality] and I can't really say we have one area where we have a huge problem," Allsen stated. "We've integrated all our facilities, we've reduced the footprint, and we've got new facilities. I think we've done an amazing job."

Since August 1, 2002, it is estimated that $200 million on infrastructure has been spent in the Cypress Health Region.

Allsen said that next year's fiscal budget will still be assembled by the 12 different regions, but it will just be submitted as one by the Saskatchewan Health Authority to the government come budget time.

The region is on pace for a $100,000 surplus for the current year, and has balanced their books 13 out of 15 years while in existence.

As for Allsen, he will now become the executive transition lead for corporate services for the new health authority and will remain in that role until the next layer of the system is filtered out and designed.