The NHS 24 line which connects patients to nurses and arranges emergency appointments with doctors has proved invaluable time and again for many local families.

In fact many parents of young children have the number on speed dial and have called it more than once as their little ones succumb to sickness, injury and the sudden onset of alarming conditions such as croup or asthma.

The elderly and infirm also rely on this service and the reassurance that qualified care is only a phone call away is surely a comfort to many.

However, the revelation that NHS Highland is struggling to find doctors to cover shifts at emergency centres has to be a cause for concern.

In an attempt to find a solution, a review is being carried out into the service to combat ongoing difficulties in filling the out-of-hours rotas.

However, the news that a review is being carried out may also be met with trepidation by Ross-shire residents, who have learned the hard way these can usually lead to cuts - or dramatic changes - in public services.

Before decisions are made, great care should be taken to ensure that changes do not lead to patients having to travel much further distances in the middle of the night to get to the nearest available doctor or nurse.

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BEING out in the sticks doesn't seem to be a drawback to remote Wester Ross villages who can teach more urban communities a thing or two about using a bit of ingenuity and team work to get things done.

Two stories emerged this week which illustrate how small, scattered villages have harnessed community spirit and a dogged attitude to improve their local facilities.

It is not so easy to nip to the Central Belt or even Dingwall and Inverness to meet decision-makers, bank managers and planners when local groups in far-flung areas such as Torridon and Applecross are working on community projects.

However, isolation has not been a barrier to the residents of those two places who were popping the champagne this week in celebration of their very different, but very significant, successes.

Faced with the closure of their local petrol station, Applecross volunteers, desperate to cling on to this vital service, ran it on a rota basis until they gathered the funds to upgrade it into a 24-hour unmanned facility, using cutting-edge technology rarely used in the UK.

Around 60 people turned up last weekend to celebrate the opening of the pumps, which are now owned and operated by a community company.

The bubbly was also out in Torridon this week after the residents there learned they had secured around £1million needed to completely revamp the village hall.

They decided a cramped hall was in need of an extension and have managed to win a number of large chunks of funding to pay for the expansion, which has really turned into a complete transformation of the venue.

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