Ophthalmic and Aural Work
When one of us joined the hospital as oculist and aurist and registrar (Lieut.-Col. Barrett) he was informed that specialists were not required, but apparently those responsible had formed no conception of the excessive demands which would be made on the ophthalmic and aural departments. The first patient admitted to No. 1 General Hospital was an eye case, and an enormous clinic rapidly made its appearance. It was conducted somewhat differently from an ordinary ophthalmic and aural clinic, in that (by reason of the remoteness of their camps) some patients were admitted for ailments which would have been treated in the out-patient department of a civil hospital. There were usually from 60 to 100 in-patients and there was an out-patient clinic which rose sometimes to nearly 100 a day. It should be remembered that these included few, if any, serious chronic cases, which were at once referred back to Australia. The amount of ophthalmic and aural disease was very great. The figures subjoined show the extent of the work done.
From the opening of the Hospital to September 30, 1915, the patients treated in the Ophthalmic and Aural Department numbered as follows:
| Ophthalmic cases | 1,142 |
| Aural, nasal, and throat cases | 1,474 |
| There were 246 operations. |
The ophthalmic cases may be roughly classified as follows:
| Ophthalmia (chiefly Koch-Weeks and a percentage | |
| of Diplo-Bacillary) | 546 |
| Affection of lids | 15 |
| Pterygium | 8 |
| Corneal opacities | 6 |
| Trachoma | 17 |
| Iritis | 12 |
| Cataract | 8 |
| Foreign bodies in the eye | 14 |
| Old injuries | 9 |
| Detachment of retina | 2 |
| Strabismus | 16 |
| Concussion blindness | 4 |
| Refraction cases: | |
| (a) Hypertropia | 210 |
| (b) Myopia | 30 |
| (c) Hypertropic astigmatism | 230 |
| (d) Myopic astigmatism | 15—485 |
| —— | |
| 1,142 | |
| ==== |
Aural, Nasal, and Throat Cases