Esperance is a beautiful regional township of about 14 000 people nestled on the shore of Esperance Bay along WA's southern coastline.

Surrounded by a necklace of several hundred islands comprising the Recherche Archipelago, the encompassing area is commonly referred to as the Bay of Isles.

Graced with a temperate climate year round and sugar-white sand bordered by brilliant blue-water bays, the peace and simplicity of the region is a large part of its appeal.

Esperance is a seven-hour car drive, an hour-and-a-half flight, or about 10 hours on a coach from Perth. Kalgoorlie is about four hours drive north of Esperance.

1. Accommodation
2. Health services

Accommodation

A fully furnished three-bedroom unit is located on Jane Street, about four minutes walk from the hospital and town centre and adjacent to a large sporting complex.

The house has ADSL cabled to each bedroom. All students are provided  with a laptop computer for use while on placement.

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Health services

Esperance District Hospital is a 40-bed hospital providing services for accident and emergency, obstetrics (250 deliveries per year), medical, general, surgical (limited), palliative care, paediatric and psychiatric admissions.

In addition inpatient gynaecology, surgery and orthopaedic services are provided by visiting specialists. The following areas are also located within the hospital or at Community Health:

• Cardiac rehabilitation
• Child health surveillance
• Community mental health
• Extended care nursing services
• Occupational therapy
• Pathology
• Physiotherapy
• Radiology/ultrasound
• Social worker/counselling
• Speech pathology
• Women's health

There are 11 private general practitioners in Esperance, distributed between four practices, all of whom have admitting rights to EDH. 

The GPs have a broad range of skills, including anaesthetics, surgery and obstetrics. Most of the town's GPs have indicated they are keen to teach Rural Clinical School students. There are no resident specialists in Esperance; however, many visit regularly.

Visiting specialists

There are a number of visiting specialists to Esperance, the frequency of their visits varying from year to year depending on requirements and availability:

• Cardiology – three to four visits per year
• ENT – six visits per year
• Gastroenterology – 10 visits per year
• General medicine – three to six visits per year
• Gynaecologist – eight visits per year
• Ophthalmologist – five visits per year
• Orthodontist – three visits per year
• Orthopaedics – four to six visits per year
• Paediatrics – eight to 10 visits per year
• Psychiatrist – 12-20 visits per year
• University Rural Surgical Service – 11 visits per year.

Every effort will be made to accommodate students' requests to spend time with the visiting specialists. Please note, however, that this may not always be possible because of the time constraints placed upon the specialists when they visit.

Community services

• Aboriginal Medical Service
• Community Drug Service Team
• Community Mental Health Team
• RFDS base.

Private diagnostic facilities

Western Diagnostic Pathology has a collection service only.

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