The St John Eye Van - Cherbourg

St John Eye Van:

The St John Eye Van is a mobile fully equipped ophthalmology and optometry treatment centre, with state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment instruments.

Transforming Lives:

Our eye van brings world-class facilities to rural and remote communities in an effort to substantially reduce blindness and visual impairment amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with diabetes.

With Our Help:

Diabetes and glucose intolerance affects up to 50% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults who live in rural and remote communities. One in three diagnosed will also have vision loss, which is preventable or treatable in 94% of cases when diagnosed in the early stages.

With our help, over 7,000 predominantly diabetes patients, have been screened from 51 communities enabling them to have their annual eye screen in culturally familiar surroundings of their own community (5,806 are indigenous patients).

What We Are Doing:

The St John Eye Van model aims to close the health gap for indigenous and remote communities utilising a tele-health model to diagnose a patient that minimises travel, time and expense to access quality eye health treatment in the familiar cultural surrounds of their own community.

Retinal Screening:

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.

Treatment:

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.

Hospital Clinics:

Our partnerships with rural hospitals bring bulk-billed specialist eye treatments to the whole community. Our ophthalmic clinics are conducted monthly.