More
than 30 years ago a task force was commissioned by the Commonwealth to
tackle a national disaster among Aborigines, which, particularly in
remote areas such as the Northern Territory, was robbing young
Aborigines of their childhoods and scarring them for life.
It was no mean expedition. Before it was over it had visited more
than 600 Aboriginal communities and country towns in all parts of rural
Australia, and seen over 110,000 people, including 60,000 Aborigines,
at least once. Each had a
substantial medical examination. From the results of the initial
examination, about a fifth were given a more intensive specialist
examination by some of Australia's most skilled doctors. Nearly 2000
people received surgical operations, a good number in special army
hospitals in the middle of the Australian desert, and another 6000
mostly older people were given glasses.
Around 30,000 people in the Northern Territory, South Australia and
Western Australia were involved in the month-long mass-treatment
programs.
There had been no expedition on this scale before, and there has
been none since. The model of its organisation, and its practical
findings, were widely admired, and the model and the experience was
later used overseas.
The task force approach was the National Trachoma and Eye Program,
led by Professor Fred Hollows. It was focused on blinding eye disease,
but neither the conditions it encountered nor the instincts of Fred
Hollows limited it only to looking at eyeballs. Every person the
program saw was given a general health examination, and, in particular
areas visited, the program made extensive additional studies of
particular problems being encountered, including the incidence of
sexually transmitted disease, respiratory disease, skin infections and
infestations, middle ear conditions, and diabetes.
The program was the genius of Gordon Briscoe, now Australia's most
senior Aboriginal historian, who had earlier played a key role both in
establishing the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service and in recruiting
the wild and irascible Fred Hollows to be its foundation medical
director. Its establishment was also funded by a challenge that a
bright doctor-come-politician, Peter Baume, threw at the various
Australian medical specialist colleges – that, if they really were
about the public interest rather than their self-interest, they ought
to prove it by getting involved in improving Aboriginal health.
The
College of Ophthalmologists took up the challenge, and not only with a
tight salaried task force, but with the additional and unpaid
assistance of hundreds of ophthalmologists who volunteered. Many of
these are still involved in providing ongoing services to Aboriginal
communities.
The program cost the Commonwealth about $4
million in 1979 dollars. At various stages, when, for one reason or
another funding was in the balance,