Welcome! It seems strange to be writing when at this stage I’m not sure anyone will ever read this, but I’ll try. I’ve been inspired by the other GP bloggers to create my own. I’m a young(ish) female GP working in the south east of England, in what I think is a fairly typical medium-sized practice in a small town with a mixed demographic of patients. I decided to become a doctor when I was eight years old, and twenty<cough> years later I find myself going to work every day, doing just that. I hope to share with you what it means to me to be a GP.
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Nice Lady Doctor · an NHS GP writes
Nice Lady Doctor 
Hi there, enjoying ur blog so far, thanks for starting it!
Hello.. great to have a GP blogging. Thanks for your comment to my blog today.. you might be interested to see the other one left by Adele – where she lives, Manchester, no one will syringe ears at all, no doctors or nurses… because someone suggested an ear drum might burst one day. So everyone goes deaf when a simple procedure can do what it did for me ? How ridiculous. In fact when I first went to the nurse she was concerned that I hadn`t oiled it enough so sent me away for 5 days. I put in about a Shell Petrol tanker full of extra virgin O O and it was fine. What procedure could any doctor do which does NOT carry some risk ? What about inserting IUD s ? Something could go wrong there, help, better not do that again, maybe a lot of unwanted pregnancies would be better after all.
You had better watch me – I am obsessed with medicine and doctors and hospitals and the state of the NHS – which I why I write about it all in my crime novels. But I promise not to bother you, even if I always read your blog !
The problem is this. There are thousands of practice nurses all over the country merrily syringing ears. Very occasionally an ear drum is damaged – perhaps the wax wasn’t softened enough or the water jet was too fierce. Patients with damanged ear drums get sent to ENT surgeons. So in a GP practice like ours, patients who have had their ears syringed are all fine. In the ENT outpatients, patients who have had their ears syringed all have perforations.
It’s the ENT surgeons who write the guidelines!
The spirit of the age is that you deviate from guidelines at your peril, so some practice nurses have had the frighteners put on them.
We once had a bolshie nurse who refused point blank to do ear syringing, and any other procedure that she deemed unwise. She wasn’t bad as nurses go, and as nurses go she went. (I hasten to add that she was very glad to leave such an appalling practice as ours.)
Our practice policy is to explain to patients that there is small risk of ear drum damage, which we will do our best to minimise. Their choice. Patients nurses and doctors all happy.
In the best of all possible worlds. 🙂
Welcome…
Thank you for the warm welcome – especially Andrew who has answered Susan’s ear wax query for me! We do ear syringing at our surgery, but like most others insist on copious olive oil-ing prior to the appointment. I know that it’s not just Manchester where practices have stopped doing syringing altogether. There’s actually a clinic in London which does private consultations for ear microsuction at £50 a pop, and it’s doing very well. There are some up to date guidelines on management of ear wax here http://cks.library.nhs.uk/earwax/management/detailed_answers/how_to_remove_earwax/ear_irrigation/contraindications_cautions_and_warnings#-288697
(designed for doctors, but straightforward enough for the layperson I think)
Welome.
We are a small but active group of bloggers.
In my practice we have a receptionist who says:
“You can see the Jobbing Doctor or a Nice Lady Doctor”
Some of my female colleagues (on a bad day) would be surprised to be described as either ‘nice’ or ‘a lady’.’
Nice to have another blog to read!
(GP Trainee)