Estevan has been pursuing a new nursing home for some time, and a recent meeting may be enough to propel the process another step forward.

Members of the community have been pushing for a new building for around 16 years.

Last week, members of the board for the Estevan Regional Nursing Home met with officials from the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the Ministry of Health, and Saskatchewan Builds.

Don Kindopp, the chair of the Estevan Regional Nursing Home Board, explains this next step.

"What we learned at the meeting was Sask Builds has awarded a request of proposal to a company to perform a needs assessment in terms of a new facility, and that needs assessment will be completed over the next three months and be completed by the end of February."

He's also hoping to get more community opinions on the assessment.

Representing the local community has been important to the board through the process, says Kindopp, and will continue to be in this new process.

Over the more-than-decade process, Kindopp says that the whole experience has been somewhat frustrating.

"It's certainly frustrating, the length of time it's taken to get this done. It, seemingly to us, goes on and on and so there's some frustration on our part for that, with the whole process of getting this completed. We just have to stay in there and continue to influence and push to replace the current nursing home."

The end results of the need assessment are likely to be released sometime in March of 2023.