Doctor on the Rock: before and after

DOCTOR ON THE ROCK recounts the experiences of Christian Belcourt, a doctor in Ferryland, Newfoundland, from 1959 to 1962, during the early days of outreach medicine. The book also covers the period of his childhood when he was inspired to do medicine as a career, future visits to the island as a radiologist, and his last visit as a tourist.

Christian grew up in a sub-tropical climate in Mauritius, surrounded by beautiful beaches, abundant fauna, and lush flora. French being his mother tongue, not only did he have to overcome the difficulties of language when he landed in Ferryland, he also had to apply his British training to the life of a doctor in an outport without a hospital and adapt to challenges of isolation and rigorous winters.

After further training in Radiology in Ottawa and Boston, he worked at the IWK Children's Hospital. He later returned to Newfoundland for locums. After retirement, he visited again, when he met previous patients and documented fascinating changes that had occurred over the previous 50 years.

The book delivers many anecdotes unique to the Southern Shore of the Avalon Peninsula, where the Irish first settled two centuries ago.