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 Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The group has evolved out of the

Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God The Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, officially the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God (abbreviated as O.H.), are a Catholic religious order founded in 1572. In Italian they are also known commonly as the Fatebenef ...

, a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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 Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

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, 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 John of God ( pt, João de Deus; es, Juan de Dios; lat, Joannes Dei; March 8, 1495 – March 8, 1550) was a Portuguese soldier turned health-care worker in Spain, whose followers later formed the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, a ...

, 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 Hospital Burwood is a private psychiatric hospital which provides mental health care on an inpatient, day patient and outpatient basis. The hospital is located in Sydney's inner-west. In addition to the main building, the hospita ...

* 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 theatre An operating theater (also known as an operating room (OR), operating suite, or operation suite) is a facility within a hospital where surgical operations are carried out in an aseptic environment. Historically, the term "operating theater" refe ...

s. Its

cancer care Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...

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 Berwick Hospital * St John of God Geelong Hospital * St John of God Warrnambool Hospital * 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 Geraldton Hospital *

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 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 United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and ...

. 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, 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

References

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