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

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.

After losing …