Welcome to the 2016 Spring Newsletter It features once again stories of activities in so many places. I hope it gives you as much encouragement as it does me to see how the vision of truly compassionate high quality healthcare is spreading –and the significant role that PRIME is playing in rolling out this vision in so many places. There are, though, many factors

in today’s world that work against these values and the financial support, prayers and the energetic work so many of you are doing to overcome these in your own communities, workplaces and overseas are more important than ever.Good news is that there are still a few places available at the PRIME Annual Conference in Northampton (March 16-19th), with more people than ever already being booked in. Particularly welcome are the large number of folk coming from overseas, some of them helped by the very generous support of those who responded to the appeal for bursary support. They will bring news of the effectiveness of the work they are doing in partnership with PRIME in countries as widespread as Bosnia, Uganda, Ghana, India, Kenya, the Middle East, Nepal, Poland, Russia, South East Asia, USA and others. In addition, there will be options to learn new methods of culturally-appropriate teaching and to explore and help us plan various aspects of the work throughout the world. The vision is being taken up and propagated by an increasing number of national and regional tutors in many areas of the world. In recognition of this, we have appointed four new international members of our executive – from Kenya, Nigeria, Australia and Portugal who heads up work in the Lusophone world. All have taken the PRIME message to neighbouring countries as well as conducting tutor training in their own locations.I asked one of these new International Members of the executive what benefits he thought coming to this conference brought to people from overseas. He said that they are enabled to fully feel part of a large caring international family and become even more committed to taking the message forward. It is the relational aspect of PRIME that we feel is so important. Relationship between doctors and nurses and their patients, the family feel of relationship between partners around the world and above all the relationship of our work to God’s great commission to help bring healing to a bruised and hurting humanity. Thank you for being a part of this.

John Geater, MBE PRIME International Director

In this issue:

Welcome! >>

ICMDA Portugal

The key word is flexibility

Richard Vincent - an unexpected doorway

Indian time…

A team gets A boost

It feels like flying by the seat of your pants

PRIME Annual Conference

Is your role-play ‘in culture’?

Kenta, Karbarak University, PRIME materials

Who are we?

News from PRIME Australia

Help restore the heart of healthcare

PRIME Network

www. p r i m e - i n t e r n a t i o n a l . o r g

N e w s l e t t e r

Spring 2016

embedencourage educa te empowerengageenv i s i on equ ip

ICMDA Portugal

ICMDA International Conference of Portuguese-speaking Christian doctors

The first Portuguese-speaking conference of Christian doctors took place last October (8-11) in Lisbon with around 60 participants from Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal and several other countries.

Dr. Vinod Shah, current CEO of ICMDA (International Christian Medical and Dental Association), Dr. Rick Paul, ICMDA Regional Secretary for Eurasia, and other ICMDA Board members have also attended the meeting.

The main theme of the conference was ‘Exhaling the good aroma of Christ. In the Family. At work. In the Community’.

An International Saline pre-conference seminar was held on the first day with a good international attendance, and several satellite seminars covering topics such as stress and burnout of health professionals, the meaning of life in the management of chronic pain, alternative medicine, euthanasia and other ethical dilemmas at the end of life, communicating bad news to patients also raised a lot of interest from the participants and were very interactive.

During the opening ceremony of the main conference there was a brief presentation of the Christian Medical Associations of Portugal and Brazil, and about PRIME’s history, vision, and values.

Dr. Jorge Cruz, a PRIME senior tutor from Portugal, was one of the speakers of the plenary sessions. His presentation on the character of the Christian doctor was based on the Bible and some insights from virtue ethics theory and practice. Virtue ethicists highlight the person’s character in decision-making. This approach focuses on being (the kind of person one ought to be) rather than in doing. It asks the question “what should I do?” but also “what kind of person should I be?” and “how should I live?”.

A virtue ethics approach aims for the pursuit of excellence, in which it intends to "hit the target" in each ethical decision. This purpose is much more demanding than the mere fulfilment of deontological rules or legal requirements. Virtue ethics and its emphasis on the pursuit of excellence is particularly relevant in medical practice in those grey areas about which the ethical codes are silent or patronising. The American evangelist Dwight L. Moody said that “character is what you are in the dark”.

Jorge Cruz - PRIME senior tutor from

Portugal

“…one who does his work well, who understands your vulnerability, professes to be able to help and is faithful to that promise. What you do not want is the entrepreneur, the businessman, the technician, the bureaucrat, the jobholder, the man who presumes he knows it all or sees you as an object for exploitation”

Medical curricula, however, tends to neglect the centrality of the character in the doctor-patient relationship. A Danish Health and Medicines Authority published a report in 2013 on “The seven roles of physicians”. It stresses seven roles or competencies that doctors should demonstrate in their clinical practice: medical expert, communicator, collaborator, manager, health advocate, scholar and professional. This emphasis on the doctors’ roles focuses almost exclusively on performance and skills forgetting the importance of “being” i.e. the doctors’ character.

The late Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino from Georgetown University wrote extensively on the need of virtue ethics in healthcare. He wrote that any person who needs a doctor in an emergency situation wants a virtuous physician, “one who does his work well, who understands your vulnerability, professes to be able to help and is faithful to that promise. What you do not want is the entrepreneur, the businessman, the technician, the bureaucrat, the jobholder, the man who presumes he knows it all or sees you as an object for exploitation”. (Pellegrino E. D., Character Formation and the Making of Good Physicians, in Kenny N., Shelton W. (eds.), Lost Virtue: Professional Character Development in Medical Education, Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2006, p. 4-5).

Those who wish a more humane medicine should not forget the importance of virtues such as compassion, integrity, benevolence or altruism in healthcare.

The keyword is flexibility…

David, Martin and I were invited to speak at the 6th International Christian Medical Conference in Poltava, Ukraine in October 2015.

The conference was mainly organised by students themselves, helped and supported by the PRIME tutor Jim Peipon who is living and working in Kiev in Ukraine. Martin and I have been participating in this kind of conference in Ukraine before and were looking forward to come back. Over 500 students from 35 countries were participating.The majority of the students were from African countries, and were studying in Ukraine.Some students of Moslem faith were there too, and doctors/students from surrounding countries such as Belarus and Moldova.

David and I met in Kiev and had time to make a plan for our teachings. We agreed to share the teaching - in good “PRIME-style".

Even if we never have taught together before it was easy to plan. David is a very experienced tutor, and that is always a blessing for me as I still consider myself as a ‘freshy’…

The next morning Jim had arranged a meeting with the cardiology children’s hospital to discuss possible teaching there. We met the main surgeon and a young anaesthesiologist and had a good talk regarding what PRIME could offer. We will see what comes from that…

In Poltava we met the rest of the "teaching crew" for lunch to get to know each other. We were 24 speakers from 11 countries.It was a blessing having so many different Christian organisations working together, and I believe some good cooperation can come out from meetings like this.

When we looked at the conference facilities I remembered Jim’s motto for this trip: "The key is flexibility”.

Our ‘room’ for teaching was actually a part of the hall, under a staircase with a big sculpture of birds right in the middle… Hurray!

But David had brought everything we needed - from projector, post-it papers to chocolate, and I brought a little moose doll to do icebreaking à la ‘Ros-and-her-chicken’, (Ed - An in-joke with PRIME folk who have seen Ros Simpson, senior PRIME tutor, teaching with her chicken. Worth catching if you can…) so with a little refurnishing we were ready to go. And go we did!

We had four classes - two on communication and two on breaking bad news/dealing with a dying patient.

Anna-Lena Løbakk, PRIME tutor from

Norway, on an Ukrainian adventure

Yes, that is the chicken…

Participation was from 10-25 students in each class.

The students were great and we felt they got something out of the teachings. It’s always almost the best part to talk to them after the classes, especially after the rather heavy subject of breaking bad news. David had some good talks, and one doctor from Belarus was very interested to have a PRIME team coming to his hospital.

Again we put all in God’s hands and see what comes from it…

A very interesting part in these conferences is the "International Night” - Africa takes over and they can dance and worship!

I had the pleasure to stand slightly behind Martin and saw some super smooth moves there!PRIME people got the beat too!

Martin was also blessed with the news of his first grandchild and got applause and congratulations from 500 students during his victory run through the conference hall! PRIME is family.

Thank you, David and Martin, for a great time together. It was fun working with you and I learned from you and your teachings, in what was a very practical tutor-training in an Ukrainian-African environment.

Richard Vincent, PRIME CEO, and the unexpected…

Many stories are written in three acts. The first introduces the lead character and his usual routine - but then intrusions and challenges start to shake the ground under him. Sooner or later something large and unexpected happens that catapults him through a doorway into Act 2. Here, to cope, he must face new disturbing and unpredictable events. An uncertain path of triumphs and setbacks carries the story forwards while leaving him (and the reader) with no reassurance at all about the final outcome.

Having travelled with PRIME since in 1999, Act 1 of my current story opened 10 years later when I fell into a position of leadership as Chairman of its executive committee. The times that followed were formative for us all and blessings came, as ever, in abundance. But within a few years unsettling challenges gathered round me. Some lay in PRIME, but more sprang up from elsewhere: prolonged gastritis after a trip to Ghana; mediating at length between deeply angry friends; viral hepatitis; the diagnosis of abdominal cancer (dismissed after

investigations over four months); helping a son during his eight month journey through a disabling mental illness; and moving to a smaller home after 34 years in the same large house.

My doorway into Act 2 was unexpected. On 4 September last year, just before flying to Scotland to help missionary friends, my heart snapped into fast atrial fibrillation (AF). My ECG at hospital read like a textbook of abnormalities including a previously un-noticed heart-attack. As a cardiologist I knew the score, the tests and treatments that would follow, including their dangers…

Now I am in the middle of Act 2. It has had its triumphs – no recurrence of AF, surprisingly reassuring cardiac investigations, and preserved physical strength. But it has also had its setbacks. It became clear that my heart was simply shouting on behalf of my mind that had struggled under the weight of the growing challenges of Act 1. Frequent waking, weird feelings, and strident dreams replaced normal sleep. For four months bedtimes became threatening rather than welcome. Ragged days followed and all normal life in PRIME, church and home was cancelled.

But there were other triumphs: God remained close, and the prayers and love of so many in PRIME and beyond injected light to ease my darkness and peace to replace my agitation. Good new leaders for PRIME have emerged to help carry it forward; our previous ideas of succession planning received a Divine jolt forward, with great effect.

Act 2 always leads through another doorway to the finale in Act 3; there is no going back to the normality of Act 1. The lead character will have been changed by his journey and the surroundings will also have shifted. I have yet to reach this doorway, but it seems a lot closer now. My story beyond, of course, is unknown, awaiting revelation - though the God of peace that passes all understanding will be there.

During this time I am learning more about love: the love of my friends and family, and the deep love of the Lord that is particularly tangible through solitude, silence and listening. He is One for whom being takes precedence over doing, and who is addicted (if I can use that phrase) to caring for us in a way that transcends anything else on earth.

Richard Vincent: An unexpected doorway…

Indian time…

We thought of you this week-end when the clocks went back and you had an extra hour in bed. You lucky things… It served to highlight the difference between UK time and Indian time. We had an ‘end of course’ meal with all the hospital staff on Friday night which was scheduled for 7pm. Come 7.30pm the hospital director, a couple of admin staff and ourselves were present but none of the students. This despite me saying the meal started at 7pm English time. I sent a ‘Whatsapp’ saying that there would be no food left and they eventually arrived at 7.40, or 7pm Indian time! They have a similar attitude to arriving for the start of the day which used to frustrate me no end. Things have improved a little since we have started the spotters (a collection of slides of conditions to diagnose, X-Rays, ECGs or blood tests) at the due time and they miss the first couple. They come nearer the start time. What they are good at is coming at the correct time for exams however, and this batch is good at not cheating!

The course has finished, the group has increased in size as one of the doctors has had a new baby. He left early to be at the birth. I think we tend to forget the commitment some of these Drs show. They have to take the 11 days of the course out of their holiday entitlement. It has taken some of them 2 days of difficult travel to get home. The feedback they give is about how much they enjoy the course and the encouraging thing for us was hearing how they

were trying to put into practice what they had learnt. It was a different experience for us, as for the first time, we were called upon to be exam invigilators and mark their clinical skills. It was difficult to get the balance right and maintain a degree of distance. Having said that it is a privilege to be able to get alongside some of them and be a ‘sounding board’ as they shared their problems.

We are now in Mussoorie, “the Queen of the hills” according to the British in the time of the Raj. It’s a hill station (6000+ft) so a lot cooler than Delhi and the Delhi people used to escape the summer heat by travelling here. The town is built on a ridge and Landour, where we are staying, is 500ft higher and about 2km away. We are trying to get some of our fitness back ready for trekking in a few days time; we have done scarcely any exercise for the past three weeks.

The streets are very narrow and difficult for cars to pass each other, especially as there are also various scooters, animals, carts and pedestrians en route. There are no pavements. We walked down the hill into the centre of Mussorie, which was teeming with people. There also was a protest march going on at the same time, as about 100 people went past chanting slogans and carrying placards. Apparently one of the union bosses had been beaten up by the police. He was as corrupt as the police said a bystander!

Tony and Helen Cockeram, PRIME

tutors, continue on their very own passage to India…

They have to take the 11 days of the course out of their holiday entitlement. It has taken some of them two days of difficult travel to get home. The feedback they give is about how much they enjoy the course and the encouraging thing for us was hearing how they were trying to put into practice what they had learnt.

Mussoorie is also known as THE place to go on honeymoon and indeed we met several honeymoon couples as we walked around.

Our return ascent was enlivened by a procession carrying a picture of a Guru up to a temple. Imagine a mix between the massed drum band of the armed forces and a New Orleans funeral. Everyone was dressed up in a sparkly uniform and two ornate umbrellas had the lead. Then came the drums, typically Indian, very fast and very loud, accompanied by some hand cymbals and gongs. Another 2 umbrellas and then the brass section. Except the instruments were silver and had very ornate and gaudy mosaics around the bell. We had euphoniums, trombones and trumpets - but sadly no saxophones. Perhaps there’s a place for me!

There were four very sharply dressed gents in the middle of all this who may

have been the band leaders and seemed to call the tunes. Finally the tented palanquin containing the picture of a guru came. Imagine all this in a narrow enclosed lane slowly making its way up hill.

The appearance of my camera made them stop and play even louder. Now throw in an ambulance with its horn blaring and lights flashing!! It was able to make headway very slowly as the band clung to the side of the road. Like the men of the Grand old Duke of York they marched up to the top of the hill and then turned round and came back down.

Guess what … so did the ambulance having delivered its passenger to the local hospital!

They carried on with the music into the middle of the night…

We had euphoniums, trombones and trumpets - but sadly no saxophones. Perhaps there’s a place for me!

Welcome to Becky and Bethanna, joining the PRIME operations team team in the UK

A Team gets A boost

Bethanna Hobbs International Assistant, tea and coffee drinker, carb cruncher, expert in all things to do with box sets, make-up wizard, singer extraordinaire, sometimes called Bethany by Becky (she’s keeping a tally)…

And in her own words… Since joining PRIME in December I have felt extremely welcome and have been really excited about working with the office team here. I recently moved to Hastings in August 2015 and as soon as I heard about the International Assistant vacancy I was keen to get to know the team more and become part of the PRIME family. I moved with my husband Josh who took a job at Holy Trinity Hastings as the worship pastor and we often lead worship together which we are both passionate about. I already feel like a piece of the furniture here in the office and I am really looking forward to meeting and getting to know everyone, particularly at the Annual Conference in March. 

Becky IngamellsAdmin and Governance Officer, tea drinker, carb cruncher, expert on all things about anything, serial optimist, paid up member of the grammar police, would love to have more time to watch boxsets…

And in her own words… I am delighted to be working for PRIME as the Admin and Governance officer, a role I started at the beginning of December. I have spent many years working for Christian charities and I am excited to be working for PRIME as I love working for organisations that make a global impact. I recently relocated back to Sussex, which is where I originally grew up, and I am thrilled to be living near the sea and near my family. I have three children, Caleb 4, Jemimah 9 and Gabriella 12, and we enjoy going to the beach, swimming in the sea and eating ice creams on the beach and we go to Holy Trinity Hastings, a lively church in the centre of Hastings.

Following qualification, the late 1970’s and half of the 1980’s was spent in primary care in the north of Pakistan. There we had two children, learnt about life, and played at being doctors. Now, many years later, knowing a bit more than we did and approaching retirement, we have again felt free to make choices. An advert in the PRIME newsletter caught my eye – “Facilitators required for two weeks in June 2015 to help with a Contact Session for the MMed Course Family Medicine based from CMC Vellore, India.”

A search on the Net showed that it appeared to be a well organised course. I thought that perhaps we did have skills that could be useful - I could certainly organise myself to be free for two weeks in June. Perhaps I could pop across, have a bit of a holiday, explore the options, and see if we could be of any use in a year or two? It was worth a punt.

And so began the one of the hardest fortnights of my life. Don’t ask. The course is indeed excellent, designed in a prestigious institution for experienced doctors to learn and gain experience in Family Medicine, a speciality that could be crucial to the health of millions, but is yet to be fully understood by the vast majority of Indian citizens (and those of many other countries of the world). It was the combination of the requirement to teach experienced doctors and the complexity of the course that took some getting used to … in essence, my problem was to understand what was actually going on. We were two Facilitators - the idea of my being supernumerary finally disappeared a couple of days before I left the UK. The will was there, but although my visa sailed through, others did not.

But as Tony Cockeram pointed out in an email received just before I went “It feels like flying by the seat of your pants, doesn't it. But it's amazing how God provides, enables and supports us when we are out of our comfort zone and relying on Him.” And he did, in a multitude of ways that would take too long to relate. Suffice it to say that my colleague from Vellore is my new very best friend. My emotions on return, when sitting in Starbucks in Heathrow waiting for my connection to Leeds / Bradford, were similar to those when I am in the middle of the endorphin rush that I get after a long distance cycle ride. With the same effect – “boy, that was hard, I just HAVE to do it again – but this time I will make better plans.”

So, in October, just four months later, I was back in India, this time with Ann. Now I knew a little more about the course - but Ann did not, and she was only a day away from full-on general practice and really only wanted to stare at a blank wall for a while. So this time, I promised, it will really be a holiday. It was a great excuse to avoid all responsibility and most of the subsequent emails with Vellore alluded to this in subtle, and not so subtle, ways.

And it worked. We met the team in Vellore, we saw how hard they worked, we absorbed the material and we tried to make ourselves generally useful. We were then put on a train to Bangalore where we saw how the course operated there. By the end of the first week we had been so well looked after that we were itching to take more responsibility, and by the end of the time we really felt part of the team. True, Ann kept saying, “When do I get my holiday?”as we never left the hospitals apart from the train journey - but I don’t think she meant it, not really.

Anyway, next time we will put a holiday in at the beginning or the end as we hope to be invited back in February to help with the new batch, and then October and June 2017, this being the way that this two year course is designed, with three Contact Sessions for approximately twenty doctors in each of eleven different sites throughout India.

The course is indeed really excellent. Some of the details can be found at http://www.cmch-vellore.edu/static/dedu/dedu.html.

“It feels like flying by the seat of your pants…”

Jim and Ann Newmark,

PRIME tutors, experience their own passage to

India

“…by the end of the time we really felt part of the team. True, Ann kept saying, “When do I get my holiday?”as we never left the hospitals apart from the train journey - but I don’t think she meant it, not really.”

PRIME’s Annual Conference has become a wonderful place for meeting and encouragement. Last year we welcomed 94 participants, with14 coming from abroad.. All levels of interest in PRIME were present, from those ‘just looking’ to those already involved in PRIME’s

teaching in many different settings. We shared, learnt, listened, worked hard, laughed, interacted, had fun, networked, played and all grew from the event.

Interested? More details here: Annual Conference or book online here: book here.

With respect to ourselves, we learnt loads, and this did not only involve the clinical aspects (although this alone would be almost enough to complete our entire years’ appraisal points). Far more than this, whenever we go abroad we meet such interesting people and have conversations of a depth that we rarely experience in the UK. As we learnt more about the course we realised how many boxes it ticked with regard to our initial concerns – for instance, just why our particular skills were required, or how the Christian facets work out in practice.

We are really looking forward to February. I am glad I saw that advert.

embedencourage educa te empowerengageenv i s i on equ ip

The PRIME Annual Conference16th - 19th March 2016King’s Park Conference Centre

Northampton UK

"Please include breaking bad news in your presentations.”

"Ok, no problem.”

"But here doctors often don't tell the patient. They only tell the family because they are the decision makers and they will have to find the money for treatment. And if you tell the patient you will make the family angry. And then they will go to another doctor.”

"Ok, so you wish us to cover breaking bad news but not telling the patient?”

This was the dilemma in truth-telling in preparing for a trip to Chennai (Madras) India in November last year. To be fair these same issues can also arise in the UK.

This very issue was further emphasised in Chennai at the start of my first presentation on Buckman's SPIKES model of breaking bad news. An oncologist in the group stood up and emphasised at length that Indian culture is not UK culture.

I agreed and heard him out and then we switched to our role play.

‘Ramm’ the patient's son (played by an Indian oncologist) insisted that the doctor (played by Stephen Hutchison, PRIME tutor) should not reveal to his father the diagnosis of advanced cancer. As Ramm was played by a local doctor this immediately brought in all the relevant local cultural issues and arguments. The outcome of the role-play was usually hesitant agreement from Ramm that his father should have the opportunity to receive all information at a further visit. The second role play was the sharing of bad news with the patient (again played by an Indian colleague) under the very wary and watchful eye of Ramm the son.

Both scenarios were monitored by a ‘director’ who controlled the ‘action’, debriefed the role players and questioned the audience. After all, India is the land of famous Bollywood directors - except in the Tamil culture of Chennai it is Kollywood.

At the end the session the oncologist who had warned us not to impose our UK culture warmly congratulated the players and ‘director’ on an effective learning experience.The second example is of role-play relevant to speciality culture. It was our privilege to address the Visakhapatnam Branch of the Indian Association of Anaesthesiologists in Andhra Pradesh.

Again, was our role-play in their culture? We were advised to role-play bad news in the context of death on the operation table or intensive care. Again choosing an Indian colleague as the relative to receive this news brought in anger, shouting, offering more money, accusations of incompetence, exposure in the media and ruination of my medical career. As a UK PRIME tutor I would not have dared put these ‘hot potatoes’ in a script. However, it provoked animated discussion relevant to the local situation.

Is your role-play ‘in culture’?…

“An oncologist in the group stood up and emphasised at length that Indian culture is not UK culture…”

Martin Leiper, PRIME tutor, on the

necessity of being aware of the cultural

context

What did I learn?

• Listen and then humbly check for local issues in ethics, religion, payments and culture.

• Involve local colleagues in role-play to authenticate local issues.

• Switch roles and ‘director’ with local PRIME partners so that you leave them confident in a new educational skill.

• Ask an audience member to set their mobile phone to time the dialogue in the actual role play (i.e. not including any educational discussion during the role-play). At the end ask the audience to guess the duration. They usually over-estimate, guessing around 15 minutes. In fact our sessions lasted around 8-9 minutes. Doctors may believe they are too busy to attempt good communication as they assume it takes a lot of time, and we demonstrated that a short time could be used very fruitfully.

• Everybody loves a story especially with the added edge of no exact script.

• Making mistakes is good. "Did you spot what I did wrong there?”

• Demonstration role-play is more fun than a lecture.

• Mix it up a bit. As a ‘patient’ I never knew if my colleague Stephen was going to be a ‘good’ doctor or a ‘bad’ doctor. This certainly kept me on my toes and both of us fresh through repeated role-plays over 10 days.

In conclusion it was a delight to plan, pray, work and role-play with our Indian partners, Dr Manoj Jacob of the Evangelical Medical Fellowship of India and Dr Dominic Joseph, oncologist and palliative care tutor, Chennai. Thanks also to my co-tutor Dr Stephen Hutchison of Inverness.

“We were advised to role play bad news in the context of death on the operation table or intensive care. Again choosing an Indian colleague as the relative to receive this news brought in anger, shouting, offering more money, accusations of incompetence, exposure in the media and ruination of my medical career.”

“In partnership with PRIME, we were able to conduct palliative care trainings both in Chennai and Vishakapatnam. Drs Martin Leiper and Stephen Hutchinson from Scotland and Dr Dominic Joseph, an

oncologist from Chennai were the facilitators. Separate brief sessions were held for medical students also at the same places and it was an eye-opener to this important area of medicine for most students. Different

aspects of compassionate care, communication skills and care of the terminally ill were covered. They found it very useful.” (Dr Manoj Jacob)

“Top quality event”

“It was a well- organised event in an untouched field

of medicine”

“We may not realise

the importance of something that comes

to our door-step. Today's programme is

one of those....”

Some of the responses from The Critical Care group of anaesthetists in Visag:

Dr Manoj Jacob

Dr Dominic Joseph

Who are we?Over a billion people worldwide lack access to even the most basic healthcare, often because there are no healthcare workers: train a healthcare worker and you can help save lives.

Train a healthcare educator and you can help save thousands of lives.

PRIME is a charity committed to training, envisioning and empowering doctors and other healthcare workers to excellence in practice coupled with compassionate whole person patient-centred care.

Last year…In 2015 PRIME tutors delivered 76 separate programmes in 24 different countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North and South America. PRIME teams were on the ground in- country for over 1,450 days delivering more than 680 days of teaching to over 4,410 individuals - this in addition to the ongoing work of our national partners proclaiming the whole person message in their daily work.

This year…PRIME already has 48 programmes planned, in discussion or being developed in Albania, Angola, Georgia, Ghana, India, Middle East, Kenya, Lithuania, Nepal, Nigeria, South East Asia, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, UK, Ukraine, Zimbabwe…

In September 2015, Kabarak University, a private Christian university in Kenya, welcomed the first class of Family Medicine residents. Of these six residents who have demonstrated tremendous commitment and passion for providing holistic care in underserved areas, four come from Kenya, one from Burundi and one from South Sudan. During an introductory block course entitled “Physicianship”, PRIME tutors Dr. Bruce Dahlman and Dr. Stephanie Onguka incorporated the two-day PRIME Whole Person Care course which was well received by the residents. Visiting PRIME tutor Dr. Andrew Barclay who has a history of service in Mvumi, TZ brilliantly facilitated the role-playing exercises of the PRIME material. After this initial success, the plan is to continue the PRIME Whole Person Care course for each new class of Family Medicine residents at Kabarak University during their introductory block courses. 

Kenya, Kabarak University, PRIME materials…

News from PRIME Australia – Owen Lewis writes:

We have been continuing our regular involvement in the contact programs of CMC Vellore’s Post Grad Diploma and MMEd Family Medicine in multiple locations around India. We often say hello

to our British PRIME counterparts in the afternoon video conference sessions. There is an opportunity to be visiting faculty for two weeks every eight months on three occasions over the two years for 15-25 trainees at one of the locations. As there is a new batch every year, the contact programs are in fact every four months.

Some tutors go once to fill in a gap, while others are going repetitively building an on-going link relationship with the program and with trainees. Now alumni of the training program have taken up teaching roles so we have the privilege of working alongside friends we have known for several years. I do commend this to readers. Once you have done PRIME Tutor training you are most welcome to explore being part of this. I am answering initial inquiries but then then forwarding to Dr Jachin Velavan in Vellore who decides on placement etc.

We will be holding our annual PRIME tutor training 20-22 May in Parramatta, Sydney. This is for Australians and visitors, especially for a group from China. Dr Michael Burke has made several trips over the past few years under the PRIME banner to meet GPs in Hainan, China. A result is that a group of six will come to Australia in May for an orientation to The Discipline of General Practice, Sydney University, experience in general practice clinics and will participate in PRIME training. Last year we held the training in Singapore.   A group of Australian PRIME tutors were invited to attend and present at a conference in December titled Christian Responses to Global Health Issues at the Universitas Pelita Harapan, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia. Connections are ongoing with the prospect of further invitations to teach PRIME.    PRIME Australia activity in Papua New Guinea is in a quiet phase, but we have ongoing connection with the project to edit the Community Health Worker Manual and also with chaplaincy training.

Owen Lewis prime@healthserve.org.au

PRIME Australia - news from our friends in the land down under!

Help restore the heart of healthcare

1 year 24 countries 76 programmes over 1,450 days of teaching reaching over 4,400 healthcare professionals

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Please debit my account on the ............day of the month, commencing (date)............... and thereafter until you receive further notice from me / us in writing.

Signature............................................................................................

Date....................................................................................................

If you are able to Gift Aid, please ask the office for a Gift Aid form: finance@prime-international.org

PRIME - Partnerships in International Medical Education is a registered charity in the UK: Reg No: 1111521 Company No: 05492101 Registered Office: Beckett House, Mitre Way, Battle, East Sussex TN33 0AS

If you would like to become a supporter of PRIME please consider making a donation or giving regular support. If you can help please complete this form and return it to: PRIME, Beckett House, Mitre Way, Battle, East Sussex, TN33 0AS, United Kingdom

NAME.........................................................................................

ADDRESS..................................................................................

POSTCODE................................................................................

EMAIL.........................................................................................

TELEPHONE

Please tick one

I enclose a one-off donation of £.....................

I would like to set up a regular standing order

Please set up the following standing order and debit my account accordingly: Pay PRIME: CAF Bank; Account number 00013436; Sort Code 40-52-40

£ ...................every month / quarter / year (please select one)

With the extraordinary network of relationships that PRIME has built up over the past few years with universities, national Christian medical and nursing associations, missions and other national and international bodies, it is possible is for us to play a significant role in spreading the vision of whole person care globally. There are many people in most, if not every, country of the world who share our calling. Now is the time to bring them together into a worldwide network.

The PRIME Network is open to individuals involved in any aspect of healthcare committed to practising and teaching evidence-based medicine that includes psycho-spiritual and relational dimensions and embodies altruism and compassion. Network Members come from countries all around the world who are committed to whole person, compassionate care in their practise, example, teaching and encouragement of others. They are all also in sympathy with the teachings and example of Jesus.

Join us and help make compassionate whole person

healthcare available to all www.prime-international.org/

theprimenetwork