A fix for a confounding intersection

While there are certainly many drivers who have their druthers about roundabouts – they can be recognized by the way their creep into the circle – it’s hard to dispute that the one now under construction at Bloomfield Corner is needed.

The corner has been an accident-waiting-tohappen for years.

The curve on Route 2 at the intersection plays with sightlines, especially for motorists exiting from Mill River East Road. And then there’s the matter of vehicles entering and exiting the business lot on the corner, which just seems to compound the confusion.

There have been numerous collisions at the intersection in recent years, many of them involving drivers who already knew the corner well.

The new roundabout has to take into consideration traffic entering and exiting the corner business lot. That could be confusing at first, but the traffic slowdown that a roundabout causes should be good for businesses, both on the corner and nearby, for the long run.

The right fit for the right physician

Health minister Robert Henderson, speaking recently to the annual meeting of the O’Leary Community Health Foundation, acknowledged it’s not easy to attract physicians to rural practices.

That’s certainly nothing new. There are, naturally, more things to do, both socially and professionally, in larger centers.

But, for the physician who wants to stand out, the small community is the place to go. Just about everyone in a community of a few hundred would know the new physician has arrived before the U-Haul has been unloaded, and many of them would show up to welcome them and help them get settled. Should the physician drop by the local grocery store, fellow shoppers would eagerly make their introductions. Small-town hospitality at its finest.

And right now, the West Prince community has to shove that hospitality into overdrive as it is currently short at least two physicians, leaving only 10 to carry the load.

Turning a corner on healthcare

The O’Leary Community Health Foundation has a rather small request for government. It wants intravenous therapy restored at Community Hospital. For the sake of approximately 1.5 additional full-time equivalent (FTE) positions at the hospital and without any additional capital or material costs to health care, dozens of patients would be spared the additional transportation costs to Summerside or Alberton for a service that might be spread over several days or even multiple times a day. O’Leary has lost emergency room service and has had acute care scaled back. This could be seen as a gain.