Australia Bali Memorial Eye Centre (ABMEC)

The Australian Government’s generous gift to the Balinese people of this modern, high-tech facility, with its capacity to handle both in-patients and outreach via mobile clinics to the isolated villages, potentially positions this institution in the forefront of ophthalmic care for those in the lower socio-economic group. This facility has also the potential to become a key part of the Australian Government’s plan to fight blindness in Australia’s near region.

In cataract surgery alone, the ABMEC and its outreach mobile clinics has the capacity to handle up to 6,000 cataract operations in a 12-month period. With Bali’s huge backlog of 36,000 in cataract blindness and the annual increment of 3,250 new cataract cases, this Centre is designed to play a major part in reaching the goals of Vision 2020 and placing Bali in the position of the top province in terms of cataract surgical achievement.
The facility and equipment of ABMEC are of very high standard. The most important requirement of ABMEC now is international ophthalmic input to achieve the full potential of the institution, an integral part of achieving the high quality mass surgery required to solve curable blindness in Bali.

ABMEC is designed to have the capacity for:

• Clinical diagnostics
• Adults’ cataract operations
• Children's cataract operations requiring general anaesthetic
• Optometry services
• Low vision clinic
• Surgical training for young Indonesian ophthalmologists
• Professional exchange with young Australian ophthalmic registrars

Front of ABMEC	Operating theatre with video-recording capacity
Lecture theatre with video link to operating theatres	Inpatients’ ward for children undergoing cataract operations under general anaesthetic

Official Opening of ABMEC – 27 July 2007

Australian Prime Minister, John Howard	President of the Republic of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
John Fawcett and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the official opening	JFF’s Vice-chairman, Robert Foord, with Australian Prime Minister John Howard after the official opening of the ABMEC

The Foundation’s policy is to provide free services to the poor in all its programs.