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Stopping of Ear Flushing Service

Story from nhs.uk

"Stopping of Ear Flushing Service"

About: The Billericay Medical Practice

I would like to express both my great concern and frustration with the proposed removal of the ear wax cleaning procedure at the Billericay Health Centre.

When attempting to book an appointment to see the nurse at the centre (as in previous cases) I was informed that the process has now been changed and that I will need to see a medical practitioner first to assess my ears. This would appear to be a ridiculous waste of the practionoirs time as I know when my ears are blocked and causing problems even after administering treatments myself and I would suggest puts another unnecessary tier in the process. As expected when seeing the practitioner he confirmed within seconds that I need them cleaned by the nurse and would need to book another appointment as he could not do it ! This is not only a complete unnecessary waste of NHS resource it is highly inconvenient for myself as I now need to arrange more time off work to attend a second appointment.

To compound my frustration, I also now understand this procedure will not be available from the 1 May 18. Which lends me to ask how will it be expected for those who suffer from this problem to have this done in the future? It would be interesting to hear why this is being removed as there is no perceivable financial savings to be had?

The response received from the Basildon & Brentwood CCG:

Dear Mr Smith

Thank you for your email and please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you. Basildon and Brentwood CCG have not removed the ear syringing service from general practice; this is purely a practice based decision.

However, in light of the concerns raised by our patients, the CCG are looking at this service as a whole and we are awaiting the NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) to issue guidelines in June, which will assist us in reviewing the service.

Kind regards

Complaints and Concerns Team

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Responses

Response from The Billericay Medical Practice 5 years ago
The Billericay Medical Practice

Submitted on 21/05/2018 at 14:57
Published on nhs.uk at 15:09

Thank you for your comment regarding ear syringing.

Ear syringing is not a service that is covered under the doctors NHS contract and therefore is not a service that surgeries are contracted to provide.

Due to the increase in demand for ear syringing, with nearly 1K appointment used last year, to continue to offer this service without appropriate funding was no longer sustainable as it was starting to affect other core services that we are under contract to provide.

The practice therefore approached the CCG to ask if they would commission the service to GP practices or provide a NHS community clinic to allow patients to continue to receive ear syringing at their GP Surgery or in the local community.

This would be in line with other CCG’s in the Essex area who commission this service for their local residents.

The reply we received from the Basildon and Brentwood CCG is that they do not commission the service and that patients should in the first instance take over the counter remedies.

Therefore based on the CCG’s recommendation we now ask patients to go to their chemist to get over the counter remedies.

The answer we received from the CCG was very disappointing as the only alternative now for patients is if appropriate, either to be referred to the hospital ENT department or for patients to find a private supplier to have their ears syringed.

Due to the CCG’s decision not to commission ear syringing I understand another surgery in Billericay will also shortly be stopping this service.

Thank you once again for taking the time to comment.

Peter Tyrrell

Practice Manager

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