Rockingham Hospital obstetrician’s retire

With nearly 80 years’ experience between them, three of Rockingham General Hospital’s general practitioner obstetricians have now retired from delivering babies at the hospital.

All starting at the hospital around the same time, Dr Essa Rasool, Dr Ross Jose and Dr Edward Bouverie provided care to pregnant women and their babies, each even delivering the babies of women they had helped to deliver years earlier.

When Dr Jose retired in 2016, he had worked at the hospital for 27 years, while Dr Bouverie retired late last year after 25 years at the hospital.

Dr Rasool retired as a GPO just weeks ago, following 26 years of service at the hospital.

Throughout his time at Rockingham General Hospital Dr Jose estimated he had delivered a staggering 10,000 babies, while the other two doctors guessed they would have delivered nearly just as many.

The privilege of being able to help bring new life into the world was a particular highlight of the job, according to all three doctors, who said they had all been in a “privileged” position to assist women and their families.

“There was never a dull moment, there was always something exciting happening,” Dr Jose said.

“It was a real privilege to serve the community,” Dr Rasool said.

All three are still practising as general practitioners.