Ears Syringe Appointment - Waste Of Time

[Ric.ror]

Just taken my mother (91 with Alzheimer’s) down to the surgery for her ears doing only to get there and the equipment being out of order! Then told “they will ring me” when they get another
Now this is a large surgery with quite a few doctors and lots of other staff. ONE machine for all those patients!!!! I want to take this further - any advice?

[Sqad]

"- any advice?"

Yes...forget it. You will get nowhere.
This ear syringing routine is nonsense.......an ear syringe is still the best method in the vast majority of cases.
GP's should be taught to syringe ears and not left to nurses.

[TonyV]

Ric You local walk in clinic may help

[Flonska]

Could be worse - they could have offered to 'phone your mum!

Perhaps a quite word with the practice manager might help - s/he may be able to arrange an appointment elsewhere - if convenient or at least book mummy in as soon as the gear has been fixed.

[retrocop]

I'm surprised they actually ,when equipped, do ear syringing at the GP surgery you attend. Many will not do it. For the amount of times people have their ears syringed I would imagine one piece of kit should be enough in our surgery of 6 GPs and 3 Practice nurses.
They should have the old fall back manual bycycle pump syringe. Now that did clear out the gunge.

[Sqad]

retrocop.....exactly.

[jno]

one machine's probably all they need, it's not as if everyone wants their ears done every day. My GP doesn't do them at all.

Not calling you to save you a journey is another matter.

[diddlydo]

Complain in writing to the practice manager who at least has to respond and/or act. This is no way to treat a 91 yr old - or anyone else for that matter.

[Ric.ror]

It was working at first but as soon as she put it near her ear it stopped. The appointment was made by the doctor who said she needed it doing before she has a home visit from audiologist. They said the audiologist wouldn’t do anything until her ears were clear

[margarettom]

I quite understand how frustrated you feel but, if your mother is going to see an audiologist, presumably to have hearing aids fitted, I know a number of very elderly people who, even when they get hearing aids, make excuses not to wear them, so you may have a lot more frustration in store.

[hc4361]

Seeing as they didn't know it wasn't working until you got to the surgery there is nothing they could have done to save your wasted journey.
You can buy the equipment to safely syringe at home, use ear wax softeners for a few days before hand

[Buenchico]

Are you sure that your mother's surgery actually planned to syringe her ears? That treatment has fallen out of favour with the NHS, with micro-suction now being the preferred technique. If it's an (expensive) micro-suction machine which involved, it's understandable as to why the surgery would only have one of them.

[jno]

oh well, if it only broke down when the treatment was getting under way, I don't think there's much to complain about. Breakdowns happen, it's just one of those things.

No point in audiologists carrying out tests if your ears are full of wax.

[Ric.ror]

Whilst I agree totally that it couldn’t be helped the machine broke down during the treatment I’m mad that we are now back in limbo with a possible pointless appointment coming from the audiologist and no timeframe from the GP’s as to when the appointment can be rescheduled
This is typical of the way the elderly are disrespected and disregarded - see my other post - it has a knock on effect for all their support network though