Patients over 65 years of age admitted to an ophthalmic ward were routinely screened in a standard way practiced in Geriatric Assessment Units. The previous drug therapy of all patients was particularly noted. A classification of the patients with undetected pathology was made and an attempt to categorise the percentage of those who required follow-up in the geriatric department and those who purely needed clinical information passed on to their family doctor, apart from the remainder who needed no medical advice. We postulate that this clinical assessment and subsequent treatment was of practical benefit to a large number of patients and therefore an attempt should be made to introduce this type of service more widely.