More than 50 people from the town of Preeceville, Sask., crowded into the provincial legislature Wednesday in an effort to keep their hospital's emergency room.

Current plans are in place to suspend emergency room services at the hospital due to lack of staff. The Sunrise Health Region has said that acute inpatient admissions and emergency room services will be suspended at the Preeceville and District Health Centre starting June 1. It's scheduled to be converted to a long-term care home until enough doctors can be found to get emergency services running again.

Tammy Pantiuk lives in the town and said it's unacceptable considering how hard the community worked to raise $3.5 million for the hospital.

"Everyone in our whole community, surrounding areas — they fundraised huge dollars," she said. "We want it. We deserve it. It should stay in Preeceville."

Another resident, Brandi Heskin, raised concerns about her two-year-old daughter with epilepsy.

"I'm petrified and terrified just to know that something as the weather changing and her going into epileptic shock and I don't have that service that's right there."

The government said it is doing what it can to recruit doctors to rural Saskatchewan. The government adds as soon as it has enough physicians to re-open emergency services at the Preeceville hospital, it will do so. It plans to recruit another doctor in October.

Preeceville, Sask., is located 296 kilometres east of Saskatoon.