This rural P.E.I. community took health care into its own hands. Now it has a thriving clinic

Back in 2017, when Lisa Gallant saw that thousands of people in her own community of Crapaud and the surrounding areas suddenly were without a family doctor, she knew she had to take action.

That year, longtime family doctor Dr. Hendrik Visser retired after 32 years of practice in Crapaud. A new physician took over, but the practice proved untenable for one person, and he left the same year.

"We had no primary health care, and we knew that something had to be done," Gallant told Island Morning host Mitch Cormier during the CBC radio show's remote broadcast from her community Thursday.

Gallant, who is a pharmacist and owner of South Shore Pharmacy, joined forces with other local leaders to form the non-profit South Shore Health and Wellness Inc. They raised about $10,000 to establish a walk-in clinic, at the time located in what had been the pharmacy's kitchen, in January 2018.

Today, that small walk-in has grown into the South Shore Health and Wellness Centre, which has undergone two expansions and is now in the middle of a third. Once the work is complete, the centre will span more than 5,000 sqare feet.

"There were times where I thought 'This is never going to happen,'" she said.

The centre now has a comprehensive care team, including a full-time physician, two full-time nurse practitioners, three licensed practical nurses, two part-time nurses specializing in chronic disease management, and a part-time physiotherapist. The latest expansion will allow for even more staff in the future.

This is exactly the kind of collaborative, multidisciplinary primary-care model that Gallant and her group envisioned from the start, one that could meet the health-care needs of a growing rural population.

But Gallant said the journey hasn't been easy; it took years of persistent advocacy with the provincial government. Now, they hope the success in Crapaud can be replicated in other rural communities across Prince Edward Island.

The concept of collaborative, team-based health care is now being embraced across P.E.I.

There are currently 17 of what the government calls medical homes in the province. These clinics offer a wide range of services, with doctors collaborating with other health-care workers. They have been touted by the province as a way to alleviate pressure on the health-care system.

But it's not a new idea.

Visser, the retired doctor who has since returned to Crapaud, said he pitched the concept to the province years ago, inspired by his early career in Africa.

"That is the way forward. We saw that effectively implemented in resource-poor countries in Africa, where six of us as physicians were able to manage a hospital the size of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, all with allied health professionals, midwives, primary health-care workers and nurses and lab and rehabilitation services — all under one roof, all interdisciplinary," Visser said.