Mortimer Hirst Eyecare & Eyewear is celebrating 75 years of clinical eyecare, a milestone built on a pioneering start.
The practice grew out of a partnership between optometrist Douglas Mortimer and Eugene Hirst. In 1943, Hirst accepted a challenge from an Auckland ophthalmologist to make a contact lens for a patient with keratoconus. With no lathes available, he moulded the lens over a stone cast taken from an impression of the eye and shaped the optics by hand using small brass laps. It is recorded as the first contact lens made in New Zealand.
That pioneering spirit shaped the decades that followed. Hirst Contact Lens manufactured hard and soft lenses in a laboratory that occupied three floors of the 9 High Street building until 1978, while Mortimer taught opticians to fit contact lenses and lectured nationally and internationally. The story is now preserved at the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).
The practice grew steadily, opening in St Heliers in 1980 and later in Takapuna and Newmarket through acquisitions. The Takapuna practice was established in 1987 by Martyn Davy, who worked for both Hirst Lens and Mortimer Hirst before opening the practice. Optometrist Grant Watters and Dispensing Optician Naomi Bicheno bought the High Street practice in 2009, and the business has remained independent through every stage of that growth.
Today, Mortimer Hirst is renowned nationally and internationally for complex contact lens work, including keratoconus, orthokeratology and post-surgery care. It also specialises in dry eye and co-manages glaucoma and macular degeneration alongside ophthalmology. It is currently the only New Zealand practice selected for a clinical research outreach programme for final-year optometry students and for the University of Auckland’s Clinical Master of Science in Optometry. It operates an outpatient clinic with Te Whatu Ora for complex contact lens care and has also been selected by Te Whatu Ora to conduct four-week follow-up assessments after cataract surgery.
The founders’ legacy continues through the clinical team, who lecture nationally and internationally, undertake pre-market product evaluations and help design new complex contact lenses.
“We owe it to our patients, to our team past and present, and to the founders who set the standard,” said Alex Bicheno, Partner at Mortimer Hirst. “Our aim is to keep offering the best clinical eyecare and the best eyewear in the industry.”
To celebrate, Mortimer Hirst has a number of promotions and events running through October and November.
For details, visit www.mortimerhirst.co.nz/75 or follow Mortimer Hirst on Instagram and Facebook.