A CHICKEN IN EVERY POT, AN EMERGENCY ROOM ON EVERY CORNER

The misattribution of the chicken quote to several American presidents when actually it was 17th century French king, Henry IV (thanks Wiki) is a catchy saying.

When I read that Wentworth Douglas was building an ER next to the Weathervane Seafood Restaurant, I imagined Hippocrates (he of the oath) exhorting the building committee in ancient Greece (around 300 BC) to provide for the people by building an Emergency Room on every corner (erectus rooma criticalus sui generis corners fouri).

Street names are not my forte, so the current array of Rooms of Emergency are known to me as Aroma Joes/Roland’s Subs (Portsmouth Hospital), Barrington both sides of the highway/no u-turns, the Dox in the Box every other corner, Central Ave and RT 1 Portsmouth/Bowlorama (basic care, not emergent care, ) and the soon to be Fish and Chips (WDH).

So, there’s no way to get in or out of Dover without passing the two best health care franchises in America. Hippocrates would be proud.

When Vince deNobile (RIP) hired me in 1984 to help develop a geriatric psychiatry program for Frisbie Hospital, he was also building Redicare in Somersworth, which survives to this day and Redicare near the Fox Run Mall, which nobody could find and closed pretty quickly.

Ahead of his time but victim of location, location, location) he had a series of successes (geropsychiatry among them) but his successors succumbed to over-building, copy catting the competition and enduring the Fall of Rochester (AD 2005-2015).

Soon Fort Frisbie will be occupied by Portsmouth Hospital and the convergence of routes 11 and 16 will be Hospital Corporation of America territory. Access to the health care mile on 108 and WD Hospital from the north will require running the gauntlet.

Don’t lose heart. An old Roman from Cochecho Country Club whispered to me, open your stance a little and build on the rivers.

And so became Bellamy Fields on the Bellamy River and Watson Fields on the Cochecho River. Come by boat and avoid the traffic!

However, knowing how the big players in health care are carving up Nobosopo (north of Boston, south of Portland) I can direct your attention to the 13th Wonder of the World, the Great Bay Floating Emergency Room and Lobster House, cruising from the General Sullivan Bridge up the Great Bay to the shores of Newmarket and Newfields. Pull up to the dock for a lobster roll and an MRI.

Great country!