The “tax on wax”: why are GPs conniving with this reduction in basic NHS services?

Helen Salisbury describes the way GPs have contributed to cutting the essential service of ear wax removal.1

An important cause of temporary deafness, ear wax also affects orientation, balance, and safety. It disproportionately affects the elderly, particularly those wearing aids, but also workers such as bus drivers, pilots, and construction workers.

GPs have always treated ear wax. Since electric irrigators became routine in the 1980s, treatment …