What's the challenge?
It is a misconception to believe that we only need to see an opthamologist when there is something wrong with the way we see. Many eye conditions for children and adults are asymptomatic – meaning you won’t know you have them without thorough examination. Early diagnosis means early treatment and a better chance of managing or even preventing vision loss. Vision loss is one of the largest challenges to employment. If we can prevent vision loss in our communities, we can build more resilient communities.
To ensure that where we offer eyecare services, everyone who needs it has access to high quality care.
Where do we work?
St John is the oldest and only charitable provider of expert eye care in the Middle East. We have hospitals in East Jerusalem, Hebron and Gaza, and clinics in Anabta, Kufor Aqab, and Muristan in the Jerusalem’s Old City, as well as two outreach van treating patients regardless of ethnicity, religion or the ability to pay.
St John South Africa offers optometric services provided by healthcare professionals who specialise in vision care and correction, prescribing glasses or contact lenses, and diagnosing and treating common eye conditions like near-sightedness or astigmatism.
St John Ambulance Queensland’s Eye Van brings world-class facilities to rural and remote communities, providing services to substantially reduce blindness and visual impairment amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with diabetes.
In 2024 so far, their sight-saving ophthalmic program has treated over 1200 patients in rural hospitals and remote First Nations communities across Queensland.
St John Eye Hospital
- Our hospital in East Jerusalem has been operating for over 140 years. The hospital is the main provider of eye care for Palestinians in East Jerusalem and sees many of the most complex eye cases from across the region, which are referred to us from medical centres across the West Bank and Gaza. As the only charitable provider of eye care in the region, the importance of the hospital for the region cannot be overstated.
- St John Eye Hospital has a large outpatient department, specialist eye units, operating theatres and 24-hour eye emergency services.
The Eye Hospital’s outreach work provides essential sight-saving and life-changing eye care to the most remote and impoverished communities in the region for free. Our outreach activity includes the Anabta Clinic, Kufor Aqab Clinic, Muristan Clinic in Jerusalem’s Old City, Hebron Hospital, Gaza Hospital and two mobile outreach vans visiting remote villages in the West Bank and Gaza. Together they serve a population of 2.5 million people.
- By protecting sight, we are safeguarding the financial and social independence of people of all ages across the West Bank and Gaza. Donations help us maintain and expand our vital work.
South Africa
- St John Eye Care is available to everyone and is aimed towards the lower LSM’s (Living Standards Measure in South Africa).
- St John plays an important role in Eye Care in South Africa. Approximately 80% of the South African population relies on public hospitals and clinics and the remaining 20% of the population has access to private health care.
- As most eye care professionals are in private practice, eye care services are available to only a minority of the population. The non-availability of affordable services for testing and the provision of spectacles is a gap St John is filling.
- St John South Africa has a longstanding relationship and eye clinic at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the largest hospital in the Southern Hemisphere.
- We closely with other community focused organisations and coalitions such as the Air Mercy/Flying Doctors Service and the Phelophepha Health train, which both travel to very remote rural areas in South Africa.
- Ournewest project is the conversion of an ambulance into a mobile eye clinic. Once completed a fully equipped mobile eye clinic with St John branding will be able to provide the right of sight to communities that currently have no access to eyecare.
- St John Eye Care serves the community by operating 10 Optometry clinics across South Africa and has been providing eye care services to the public for over 70 years.
- St John South Africa, offers eye examinations and high-quality eyewear to the underprivileged, ensuring communities receive the vision care they need.
- St John Eye Care serves the community by operating 10 Optometry clinics across South Africa and has been providing eye care services to the public for over 70 years.
St John Ambulance Queensland's Eye Van
- St John Ambulance Queensland’s Eye Van brings world-class facilities to rural and remote communities, providing services to substantially reduce blindness and visual impairment amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with diabetes.
- Diabetes prevalence is almost three times higher in Indigenous Australians with only 53% of Indigenous Australians with diabetes undergoing annual eye screening.
- In 2024 so far, their sight-saving ophthalmic program has treated over 1200 patients in rural hospitals and remote First Nations communities across Queensland.
- The St John Eye Van is a mobile fully equipped ophthalmology and optometry treatment centre, with state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment instruments.
- Retinal photography has become the preferred screening tool for diabetic retinopathy and is usually performed in a GP or optometry practice; or by an Indigenous health worker.
- The St John Eye Van is equipped to manage the three most common complications of diabetes within the Indigenous population. These are refractive change, cataract and diabetic retinopathy.
- St John Ambulance Queensland’s partnerships with rural hospitals bring bulk-billed specialist eye treatments to the whole community. Their ophthalmic clinics are conducted monthly.
