Dr Mary Fortune leaves her home, family and friends in Scotland to answer the cries for help from the mining town of Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia. Despite knowing she will miss her son, and husband of 22 years, Dr Mary is excited about the challenge of moving to Kalgoorlie and optimistic about what the experience will be like. Dr Mary's arrival is welcome news for Kalgoorlie residents, who have been struggling to attract doctors for some time. "If you go on holidays," says local Dr Andrew Siegmund "we don't have someone to fill that gap. But it's not just Kalgoorlie struggling with staffing issues. The residents of Wagin have just been told their only doctor, Dr Alan Majid has resigned after only four months of his three year contract. "Why have the previous four doctors left?", asks Dr Majid, What is wrong? There has to be some problem somewhere". Despite his resignation, Dr Majid has agreed to stay in Wagin to teach medical student Nabilah Islam, during her country medicine term. Nabilah's four week placement in Wagin will be the first time she has ever travelled without her parents. Amidst the town politics of Wagin, how will Nabiliah cope away from home, and how will she find working under supervision of disgruntled Dr Majid?
Having left Kalgoorlie to help Dallwallinu's only doctor, Dr Mary finds herself busier than she had ever expected. Although stipulating in her contract that she would not work 24/7, she realises that without adequate support, a contract in the bush can be very difficult to enforce. For Nabiliah's good friend Jen Martin, completing her rural placement was always going to be a challenge. For this city slicker, the small town of Katanning will be an eye-opening experience. Will it be an experience though, that will entice Jen to take a place in the bush once she's finished her degree?
Three years ago, in Desperately Seeking Doctors, feisty and outspoken Scottish GP Dr Mary Fortune answered an urgent call to help ease the shortage of doctors in regional Western Australia. Her brief encounter with Aboriginal health touched a nerve. So now she's back for a three month stint in an Aboriginal health service in Kununurra in the remote rugged and scenic North West of Australia. In Desperately Seeking Doctors: The Kimblerley, Dr Mary brings a brave heart and a fresh eye to the challenges of Australian health care. Working at the Ord Valley Aboriginal Health Service (OVAHS) in Kununurra and dealing with upwards of 120 patients a day, Dr Mary is thrown into the deep end of the health crisis facing the Kimberley. And the OVAHS clinic is a long way from her sedate waiting room in the Scottish Islands. Against the backdrop of a resources bonanza, Dr Mary comes face to face with the health impacts on a community by-passed by the boom; including a homeless pensioner recently awarded the Order of Australia and the ticking time-bomb of heart disease for a grandmother trying to provide a home for young kids fleeing family feuds.
