Is it any wonder the health service is in difficulties?

[Brian Gaff]

The impulse jet devices are fine provided the person using it knows what they are doing. Often however there are also other problems nobody could force, like a small hole in the ear drum, or a build up on the other side of the ear drum that removal from one side makes it kind of bulge meaning you are deaf. The critical clue in the description is tinnitus, as that implies damage already done For me it was done when I was struck by lightning and although I was not burned or anything the sound has affected my ears ever since and I was told its best not to get them syringed unless you are very deaf. I'm sure they have their reasons, but I'm no doctor. Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

Excepot that employees demaqwnd it.

It was back in the day, a tax deductible perk.

And socialism natch decided that people were too stupid to manage their own pensions.

[Tim Streater]

The *unions* demanded it, I expect. And why not. It's not their money, after all.

An allowing it was extremely short-sighted. The first clue as to how bad it was, was that it allowed Cap'n Bob and others of his ilk, to raid the pension fund.

[Steve Walker]

In this case she's had tinnitus all her life and had been having her ears syringed at the hospital's audiology department for about 30 years with no problem. It was only when she experienced a far stronger jet than she was used to that the damage was done.

SteveW

[Dave Plowman (News)]

So much for the freedom you Tories go on and on about.

What you basically mean, as with Farage and health care, is that is something else to make a profit from.

Just look at it another way. A bank, say, is perfectly capable of looking after your money. But not running a pension scheme for its employees. They would have to find one to do it for them themselves. And we all know plenty stories about such pension companies persuading employees their pension will be better run by them. When in fact lying.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Far better to give it to a pension company to mismanage. In Turnip land.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm very sorry you didn't have a job with a pension. Can be the only true reason you hate them.

[whisky-dave]

I was tild my pension was final salery and after paying in for 30 years and accepting lower wage demands because we have better holidays and a final salery pension I've been told that mt pension is going back to average pay pension.

What does that say about the professionals and employers who have since changed such scemes, not that they are sorted.

[Tim+]

Entirely suitable for DIY unless you're a ham-fisted idiot.

Very simple to do and as you can feel where the curette is (which no operator can) and can control the force used, it's safer than letting someone else loose in your ear.

Tim

[dennis]

I remember a legal and general pensions salesperson trying to sell me a private pension, when I said I was in the GEC pension he immediately said stay in it and stopped trying to sell me anything.

[dennis]

Skin, like the eardrum, can get weaker with age. It can be damaged by stuff that wouldn't have done anything ten years earlier.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite. Although plenty unscrupulous try and persuade you to move it somewhere with 'better results' - for them.

Pretty well everyone I know of my age is in a company pension scheme. No surprise a good Tory like Mr Streater wants them abolished. Why should workers have a conformable retirement? That is reserved for the likes of Philip Green. At the expense of his workforce.

[harry]

They pay virtually no tax and send most of their earnings back home.

[harry]

I paid into my (NHS) scheme for forty years.

[Tim Streater]

Anyone managing a pension scheme would be making a profit from it.

That's right, just like any other company whose core business is not pensions.

Well of course. You had one of the gold-plated unsustainable ones. Of course he's not going to be able to top that.

[dennis]

Can you at least try and get the attributions right. Most readers make it quite easy to get right.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Unsustainable. One of those words used by good Tories about pensions. But not about the obscene salaries paid to those who would run their preferred pension companies.

Pensions are part of a pay package. How that package is derived is between the worker and the company.

[Brian Reay]

I've just had mine done- I need it done about every 2 years +/-. Fortunately, our surgery is very good and you can usually get an appt, even to see a GP, within a day or so. In this case, I got a nurse appt the next day- but only because I'd been putting drops in for a couple of weeks.

You used to be able to go into a place in Maidstone where there was a little nurse who did nothing but syringe ears. She had a syringe which was nearly as big as her, you just walked in, she blasted it, and that was it. No fuss, and usually no more than a few minutes wait. You've never seen anyone so happy in their work ;-) I assume she was too good at her job.

[Brian Reay]

These days they use a much more gentle technique. It does require you to use drops first- our surgery insists on 2 weeks of drops first. The water flow isn't very powerful at all, in fact if the wax is really hard, it may take a couple of tries (ie more drops and a return trip).

[Roger Hayter]

Because of consumerism/compensationitis. The risks of syringing (manual or by machine) are very small but they are there. If anything does go wrong the patient will claim they have been unable to walk or watch telly since and sue for millions. They may well write to the General Medical Council, who will duly investigate even stupid complaints, and start a social media campaign to have the doctor struck off. Despite the very small risk, it is not worth it for the professionals who have enough nonsense to put up with doing the essentials of their job.