Vision Hospital Group acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land on which all of our day surgeries around Australia are placed. We extend this respect to all First Nations peoples, as patients, employees and community members – and to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Our principal focus is delivering world-class surgical care to metropolitan and regional Australian communities, but our commitment to community health doesn’t end there. Several of our doctors and staff contribute their time to charity work, and our OneVision ESG Program includes the following social and environmental initiatives.
Check out our Golden Girls, Eliza and Evie – our sponsored guide dogs-in-training!
Guide dogs can take up to 2 years to complete their training, which starts when they are puppies. Once they graduate, guide dogs can help vision-impaired people get around safely and confidently. While the independence this offers is incredibly valuable, the expenses involved in raising and training a guide dog are significant – each one costs more than $50,000.
The Vision Hospital Group team is proud to sponsor these puppies, and we look forward to seeing them become fully-fledged guide dogs who will transform people’s lives.
‘When not on training walks, Eliza enjoys relaxing with friend and surrogate mother, Black. Evie has been enjoying her beach walks and loves to get about on crisp early mornings.’
– Kelsey, Guide Dogs NSW/ACT
Vision Hospital Group is proud to be an Enterprise Supporter of Australian charity Sight For All, aiding in its quest to advance eyecare for underprivileged communities worldwide.
Sight For All aims to provide equipment and training to increase the ophthalmic capacity in target communities. Every year, more than 120 eye care professionals, including Vision Hospital Group doctors, donate over 10,000 hours of their time to deliver intensive, in-country training to local doctors.
The partnership also includes opportunities for Vision Hospital Group staff to get involved through Sight For All projects in Australia and overseas, the Sight For All Research Committee and workplace giving.
‘Although we are located throughout Australia, we are very much aware of the millions of vision-impaired people beyond our shores, which is exactly what Sight For All was set up for. We are thrilled that this partnership will extend our impact on the lives of individuals in all communities.’
– Amanda Cranage, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Vision Eye Institute & Vision Hospital Group
As part of our commitment to sustainability, we have joined forces with Global Green And Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) – an international network of hospitals and healthcare facilities committed to reducing their environmental footprint while promoting public and environmental health.
The GGHH network spans more than 80 countries and unites the sustainability efforts of over 1,700 healthcare organisations.
GGHH is a Health Care Without Harm program.
‘Becoming an environmentally sustainable organisation is a long-term project that requires specific expertise. As a member of GGHH, Vision Hospital Group has ready access to valuable tools, resources and ideas that are already designed with healthcare in mind.’
– Karen Lopreiato, Company Secretary, Vision Eye Institute & Vision Hospital Group
Guided by the GGHH framework, Vision Hospital Group’s initial sustainability goals are:
This ambitious project will be overseen by our Sustainability Working Group, which includes a member of Vision Hospital Group’s Executive Leadership Team – Ms Karen Lopreiato.
Detailed assessments of current and proposed initiatives are underway to allow the Sustainability Working Group to set appropriate targets. Here are some of our current sustainability initiatives:
We partner with Lions Recycle for Sight Australia to collect unwanted glasses, which are then refurbished and reused overseas in underprivileged communities.
Many of our patients have donated their glasses – especially those who have had their vision corrected with cataract surgery or a refractive procedure at one of our day surgeries! Once the glasses have been collected, they are taken to one of three recycling centres in Queensland to be cleaned, graded and labelled under strict quality control rules.
Through this program, we have contributed to the hundreds of thousands of glasses donated each year across Australia.
We welcome the introduction of the Australian Government’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), which commenced on 1 January 2019.
Vision Hospital Group is committed to conducting business responsibly and ethically and to ensuring all aspects of our business practices, including our supply chains, are free from any form of slavery. We reject all forms of modern slavery which can take the form of unpaid or underpaid servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. We are committed to implementing effective systems and controls to ensure that it does not take place within our own business or through any of our supply chains.
At Vision Hospital Group, we believe gender pay equality is not just a legal obligation, but a fundamental part of our organisational integrity and values. We recognise that fair and equal pay for all genders is crucial in promoting an inclusive, diverse and productive workforce. A full copy of our Employer Statement in relation to gender pay equality is available here.
Vision Hospital Group reports to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the Act). The main aim of the Act is to promote and improve gender equality in employment and seeks to help employers remove barriers to gender equality and to promote the elimination of discrimination against women. Vision Hospital Group’s gender equality information can be found on the WGEA website using the following link https://www.wgea.gov.au/data-statistics/data-explorer.