Just how safe is the Pill? Most indicate that these lingering odours occur within the context of a general decline in the acuity of their sense of smell. This would suggest they are a compensatory phenomenon, where the "smell centre"" in the brain, deprived of a constant sensory input, goes into overdrive. Meanwhile, there have been a couple of useful developments for those whose loss of (or distorted) sense of smell is related to sinus problems. The first concerns the benefits of rinsing the sinuses daily with a salt-based solution. One reader commends NeilMed, noting a marked improvement within a few days after being troubled for some time with a disagreeable chemical smell. ENT surgeon Carl Philpott, of Great Yarmouth Hospital, also reports success with a new technique known as Bilateral Computer-Aided Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (or BiCASS for short). Buttock-clenchingly painful This week's medical query comes courtesy of retired midwife Mrs CL, from Huddersfield. Now in her mid-sixties, for the past 15 years she has been afflicted with excruciating pain deep in her buttocks, which is relieved by walking around or changing position, but not by lying down. This would be strongly suggestive of trouble either in the hips or lower back - were it not that even at its worst, she can still readily touch her toes. Both an X-ray of the pelvis and an MRI scan were entirely normal, and the usual treatments - including osteopathy, acupuncture and a steroid injection - have brought no relief. What, she wonders, could conceivably be amiss? The latest NHS re-disorganisation As my colleague Dr Max Pemberton discusses opposite, the latest re-disorganisation of the National Health Service starts today - appropriately enough on April Fool's Day - when family doctors take over responsibility for a major slice (£65 billion) of the NHS budget. It would be unrealistic to suppose they might be up to the task, not least because most have little or no concept of the purpose of the latest reforms, or indeed what they entail. Nor could they, as the new arrangements also entail establishing a barrage of new institutions whose composition and responsibilities are difficult to fathom - Strategic Clinical Networks, Clinical Senates ("to provide multidisciplinary input to strategic clinical decision making""), Commissioning Support Units, Health and Well Being Boards, and so on. Still, the more entrepreneurial among family doctors will at least have the opportunity to boost their income still further in the impending chaos. More than a third of those involved in "Clinical Commissioning Groups"," it has recently been revealed, have directorships or shares in private companies that will be "tendering"" to provide diagnostics, minor surgery and out of hours services. It will end in tears. Online clinics Many apologies to all those who may not have been able to access the online clinics for March 8 and 15. They should be available shortly.