St John of God Health Care is a Catholic provider of health care services in Australia, with 24 hospitals and facilities comprising more than 3,400 beds. The group operates in
Western Australia,
New South Wales,
Victoria, and
New Zealand.
The group has evolved out of the
Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, a
Catholic order.
History
The congregation of the Sisters of St John of God was founded in 1871 in
Wexford, Ireland. In 1895, Perth's Bishop
Matthew Gibney
Matthew Gibney (1 November 1835 in Killeshandra, Cavan, Ireland – 22 June 1925 in Perth, Western Australia), an Australian metropolitan bishop, was the third Roman Catholic Bishop of Perth, serving from 1886 until 1910.
Gibney gave Australia ...
sent a request to the Sisters for help to care for people suffering from
typhoid fever during the
1890s gold rush. The first hospital established under this arrangement was at
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...
in the late 1890s followed shortly by
another in the Perth suburb of
Subiaco.
The Sisters often cared for patients with infectious diseases including typhoid and Hansen's disease (leprosy), which spread quickly in crowded mining camps. In 1937, after much lobbying by Sister
Mary Gertrude
Mary Gertrude (born Anne Greene, 1884–1965), was an Australian nurse and provincial superior, and a member of the Sisters of St. John of God.
Early life
Born in Killard, County Clare, Ireland, she settled in Australia
Australi ...
, the order established a hospital for Aboriginal Australian patients with Hansen's disease, outside of Derby.
The Sisters of St John of God went on to establish additional hospitals, pathology and social outreach services in Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.
In 2007, St John of God Health Care merged with the services previously operated by the Hospitaller Order of St John of God in Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand.
In 2015, St John of God Health Care expanded into public health care and took ownership of Hawkesbury District Health Service and opened St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals.
Pomegranate symbol
The symbol used by St John of God Health Care is a cross with a pomegranate. The cross symbolises the Christian heritage of the organisation; the pomegranate, which is open to allow the seeds to scatter, symbolises self-giving and represents the organisation's values.
The pomegranate symbol was chosen by the Sisters of St John of God to reflect the order's patron Saint,
John of God, who ministered to the sick and poor in the Spanish town of Granada – ‘pomegranate’ in Spanish – in the early 16th century.
Services
St John of God Health Care operates private and public hospitals, as well as disability, home nursing and social outreach services.
Locations
St John of God operates 13 medical/surgical hospitals, one rehabilitation hospital, three psychiatric hospitals, three day hospitals and one oncology centre across Australia. It also operates home nursing services in Western Australia and Victoria, social outreach services in Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria and supported residential facilities for people living with a disability in Victoria and New Zealand.
Australia
New South Wales
*
St John of God Burwood Hospital
*
St John of God Richmond Hospital
* Hawkesbury District Health Service: established in 1996, Hawkesbury District Health Service replaced the old Hawkesbury Hospital which was built in 1955. In 2015, St John of God Health Care acquired the Hawkesbury District Health Service from Catholic Healthcare. the facility has 131 beds and three
operating theatres. Its
cancer care unit opened in 2017.
Victoria
*
St John of God Ballarat Hospital
St John of God Ballarat Hospital provides hospital care for people living in Ballarat and Western Victoria regions of Australia.
Founded in 1915, the 221-bed hospital is located in the central business district of Ballarat, a city in Victoria, A ...
*
St John of God Bendigo Hospital
St John of God Bendigo Hospital is a 167-bed private hospital located in central Victoria.
St John of God Health Care acquired Mt Alvernia Mercy Hospital in February 2005, renaming it St John of God Bendigo Hospital. The private hospital servic ...
*
St John of God Berwick Hospital
St John of God Berwick Hospital''located in Melbourne, Victoria.
It provides health care to Melbourne's south east and regional eastern Victoria.
Originally known as Berwick Hospital, the facility was taken over by St John of God Health C ...
*
St John of God Geelong Hospital
St John of God Geelong Hospital is a 284-bed hospital providing inpatient and outpatient care in the Barwon and south-west regions of Victoria.
Founded in 1965, the Sisters of St John of God purchased the hospital in 1977 and it was renamed fr ...
*
St John of God Warrnambool Hospital
Warrnambool (Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (Alla ...
* St John of God Langmore Centre
*
St John of God Frankston Rehabilitation Hospital
St John of God Frankston Rehabilitation Hospital is a 60-bed hospital providing specialist inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation care.
Located in Frankston, Victoria, the facility is a specialist rehabilitation hospital, providing neurologica ...
Western Australia
*
St John of God Bunbury Hospital
St John of God Bunbury Hospital is a 145-bed private hospital providing health care to the south west of Western Australia.
The hospital was established in 1927 in Bunbury as a branch of St John of God Hospital in Perth, and in 1940 was establ ...
*
St John of God Geraldton Hospital
St John of God Hospital Geraldton is a 60-bed private hospital providing health care to Geraldton and the Mid West of Western Australia.
Established in 1935, the hospital first opened as a 28-bed facility and underwent major renovations in 19 ...
*
St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals
St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals is a health care facility in Midland, Western Australia which opened in November 2015.
St John of God Health Care built and operates the hospitals under a public-private partnership with the ...
*
St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital
St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital is a 205-bed private hospital located on the banks of the Swan River in Mount Lawley, Western Australia.
Established in 1937, the hospital was initially known as St Anne's Hospital and then became Mercy Hospit ...
*
St John of God Murdoch Hospital
St John of God Murdoch Hospital is a 511-bed private non-profit hospital located in the southern suburbs of Perth in Western Australia, immediately adjacent to the public Fiona Stanley Hospital campus. The distance between the entrances to the ...
and Surgicentre
*
St John of God Subiaco Hospital
St John of God Subiaco Hospital is a private hospital in Subiaco, Western Australia, founded in .
History
Archbishop of Perth Matthew Gibney invited eight sisters of St John of God to Western Australia in 1895 to help people with typhoid fever ...
* St John of God Wembley Day Surgery
* St John of God Carine Specialist Centre
New Zealand
* St John of God Halswell – a 51-bed facility residential and respite support service and three community homes for people with acquired brain injuries, physical and neurological disabilities.
* St John of God Wellington – a 36-bed residential care facility for people with physical disabilities.
Social outreach
The system operates a number of social outreach and community programs to support disadvantaged and vulnerable communities, including:
* St John of God Accord – disability support services including day respite, to group housing and employment support.
* St John of God Horizon Houses – accommodation and support in WA and Victoria for people aged 16–22 at risk of homelessness.
* St John of God Raphael Services – early intervention counselling, therapy and support for parents from conception through to their child's fourth year. Services are located in Victoria, WA and NSW.
* International health programs – aimed at raising the capacity of healthcare workforces in Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and the Kingdom of Tonga.
* St John of God Casa Venegas – accommodation and support in Sydney for people with enduring mental illness.
* Community mental health services – in regional Victoria and Perth, WA, providing individually tailoring counselling at low or no cost.
* Waipuna – a youth service in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Home nursing
St John of God Health Choices, a division of St John of God Health Care, provides home nursing services in the Australian states of Victoria and Western Australia. Health Choices has bases in Ballarat, Bendigo, Berwick, Geelong, Melbourne, Subiaco and Warrnambool.
In 2009, Health Choices was created as a separate division to provide home nursing in sites where it had not existed before.
In May 2010, St John of God Health Choices acquired Melbourne-based nursing provider M&M HealthPower.
St John of God Health Care is a provider of community nursing services on behalf of the
Department of Veterans Affairs. The Health Choices service is free for veterans and people with private health cover.
The St John of God Foundation
The fundraising arm of St John of God Health Care is the
St John of God Foundation
St John of God Health Care is a Catholic provider of health care services in Australia, with 24 hospitals and facilities comprising more than 3,400 beds. The group operates in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...
, established in 1994 by the Sisters of St John of God. In February 2010, the Foundation was integrated into St John of God Health Care.
The Foundation raises funds to support medical research, life-changing medical equipment and person-centred treatment in response to the needs of people and communities that are not met by traditional means or government funding.
[Sisters of St John of God]
"St John of God Foundation"
Retrieved 2011-02-28
See also
*
List of hospitals in Australia
*
List of hospitals in New Zealand
This is a list of hospitals in New Zealand. It includes hospitals certified by the Ministry of Health, such as public hospitals, maternity centres, private surgical centres, psychiatric hospitals and hospices. It does not include facilities whi ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
Official websiteSt. John of God Hospital Sierra LeoneSisters of St John of God websiteSt. John of God in The Netherlands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John of God Health Care
Hospitals established in 1989
Catholic health care
Hospital networks in Australia
1989 establishments in Australia