Sorry to hear about your experience Travs. It is my understanding that syringing should no longer be done, and that wax should be removed under direct vision with specialised suction equipment. £130 is pretty steep - ideally all GPs would know what to do and have the equipment to do it - but they are of course running a business and I doubt they would get any reimbursement for their outlay. Doing the wrong things, and not rewarding staff who do the right things, is undoubtedly an ongoing NHS problem, but the current crisis is pure and deliberate underfunding - you only have to look at staff/bed numbers in the UK compared to our economic peers - we are well down.