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Anabta Centre
For several years now, access for patients from the West Bank to the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem has become increasingly difficult, and the bureaucracy involved can be distressing and prohibitive for many of our patients, Many of them are either old or very young, which complicates the issue even more.
Following the success of the St John satellite centre in Hebron, which opened in 2005, it was decided to open a second centre in the north in April 2007. Anabta was selected as a suitably accessible place for most people and we were offered premises owned by the Palestine Red Crescent Society in the centre of the village. The line of purple flowering Jacoranda trees on either side of the road makes a welcoming approach to the village. The residents have raised funds for a school and a playground next to the Centre and there is always a busy feeling about the place.
Hani Abu Haijer is the Nurse Practitioner who acts as the coordinator of the centre and he has been instrumental in setting it up, dealing with everything from the water supply, faulty electricity, orgnaising the equipment and supplies – and finally coordinating the care of the patients, in conjunction with the two ophthalmologists who now work in the Centre. Dr Sami Suhktian lives in Nablus and did his ophthalmic training at St John, and Dr Marina is from Russia, but married to a Palestinian Dentist and has lived in Jenin for several years.