Abstract
To investigate demographic aspects of the access to services at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH), routine registration records on outpatients were linked to the population of state health regions, the distribution of ophthalmologists and projected population growth. In the six-month period September 1990 to March 1991, 19,339 persons came to the hospital (Emergency Department or Outpatients) at least once with an eye problem. Most (93%) lived in the Melbourne metropolitan area. The largest group (40%) came from Health Region 6, the Western Metropolitan region, which also has the lowest density of ophthalmologists in Victoria (1.6 per 100,000 total population, excluding ophthalmologists in the central business district of Melbourne). In the sample, 7243 patients (37%) were aged 65 years or older. Of these older patients, 75% had multiple visits to the hospital for a given illness, compared with 30% in younger patients (P < 0.01). By application of projected age-group growth rates in the Victorian population to the current profile of RVEEH outpatients, we forecast a 32% increase in the number of outpatients attending the hospital over the 15 years to 2006, 10% more than the projected population growth of 22% over this period.
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