Unfair to charge for having ears de-waxed

DISGRACEFUL and unforgivable are the only words to describe a recent ruling that innocent victims of ear-wax build-up have to pay £30 for each ear to be de-waxed on our NHS.

Until recently, the nurse was responsible at one’s local surgery for cleaning painful, waxed-up ears, which would get worse until they were de-waxed by a professional. One wrong move by a do-it-yourself patient could destroy one’s eardrum.

It was a vital part of body health care and free under NHS rules. Now some uncaring, penny-pinching, overpaid minister decides to charge these victims to add to their problems. It’s cynical and callous.

Do we not already pay through our taxes? How dare someone out of touch with real people do this after we have gone through so much in the past 18 months.

Surgeries do have a choice to pay for the waxing out of their own expenditure but many choose to make us pay and both ears have to be treated in one sitting. So it’s a choice between de-waxing or going without food for a week or so. People will remain in agony rather than starve and the consequences will be more hospital visits.

We should have a say in where our taxes go – otherwise we are no better than sheep to the slaughter or puppets.

Why don’t the powers-that-be go after tax-dodging billionaires, who have millions stashed away in tax havens such as the Bahamas, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Cayman Islands, to name a few. We need to bombard our MPs with complaints about greedy GPs, too.

Joe Coleman, Chaddesden