John Caroe
PRIME 2002
£5 Pb 60pp
ISBN 978 0 95595 271 5

Written to convey the early years of PRIME (Partnerships in International Medical Education), PRIME Calling recounts briefly the early coming together of a group of Christian doctors in Sussex who wanted to'reconcile [their] professional responsibilities with [their] Christian faith'. Out of that grew the'Doctor's Dilemmas' course at Burrswood Christian hospital in rural Kent, bringing together Christian GPs for professional postgraduate teaching and spiritual (and indeed, physical!) refreshment. Into this environment of clinical teaching, prayer, long woodland walks and warm fellowship, they invited some Romanian doctors they knew. The Romanians were so encouraged they asked the team to run a similar course in Romania, and the rest, you might say, is history.

In a few brief vignettes, the story is told of those early trips in Romania, then Albania, Russia, Armenia, and more recently to Kenya, Ethiopia, India, Nepal and beyond. It seems that the natural human compassion that motivates many into medicine is so driven out of us by our training that having permission to put it back into practice is a liberation.

A short, helpful read for anyone interested in the ethos, origins and work of PRIME.

Steve Fouch is CMF Head of Allied Professional Ministries.