VANCOUVER PRIVATE CAMBIE SURGERY CENTRE (!986)

The Cambie Surgery Centre (CSC) was opened in 1996 by a group of nationally and internationally renowned doctors and independent investors. With the vision of Dr. Brian Day, it was the first medical facility of its kind in Canada. The founders wanted to build a facility where highly skilled doctors could perform surgery on their patients in an environment that offered them access to the latest technology in a setting that emphasized exceptional patient care. The CSC has recently been described by the media as “Canada’s finest medical facility”. Patients from around the world, including many famous celebrities and athletes, have travelled to Vancouver to receive care at the CSC.
The Workers Compensation Board (WCB) was one of the first supporters of the CSC. Injured workers could be treated within weeks, rather than waiting a year or more in the public system. The WCB saved millions of dollars annually in reduced costs and workers suffered greatly reduced disability. Other federal and provincial agencies have joined the WCB in supporting the centre.
In July 2003, the CSC completed a 9,000 square foot expansion to expand its original 3 operating rooms to 6 operating rooms (3 of which are digital), 7 recovery beds, and 6 in patient rooms. CSC has more operating theatre capacity than most British Columbia hospitals.
The CSC is presently the most technologically advanced surgical centre in Canada and is committed to stay at the leading edge of new advances in medical technology. Through the use of its multi-media broadcast system, the CSC plans to host world conferences so that surgeons from all around the world can communicate and learn.

UK: 1200 INDEPENDENT DOCTORS.

UK: INDEPENDENT DOCTORS FEDERATION ( i.e NOT part of NHS)

History of the IDF

The IDF was started in 1989 under the name Independent Doctors Forum and it incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in 1992.  It was set up by a group of conscientious, like-minded and enthusiastic doctors working fulltime in the independent sector, who felt a platform was needed for open discussion, voicing ideas and exchanging views.
Since that time the IDF has grown in stature and significance and has taken on roles which far exceed the boundaries initially envisaged.  This has been particularly true with the introduction of appraisal and revalidation and its implications for member doctors.  It is also lobbying hard to make sure that the voice of the independent sector is heard within government, DOH, GMC, CQC.
Although aptly describing the initial aims of the group it was felt that the word Forum no longer fitted with the IDF's changing role and at a General Meeting held on 11th June 2009 members voted to change the company name from Independent Doctors Forum to Independent Doctors Federation. 
Membership of the IDF currently stands at just under 1200 - these are all GMC registered doctors in Independent Practice.  Members are currently split 2/3 Consultants; 1/3 GPs. We also have 46 corporate sponsors. 
To download a copy of the IDF's most recent accounts please click here.

ONTARIO ELECTIONS.

IMPORTANT TO ELECT PC PARTY to save Ontario Medicine from Socialist centralized control by pseudo-experts with MHSc & Social studies PhDs.

AAPS: PHOENIX VA DISASTER

New Obamacare Endgame: the VA for All May 26, 2014 By Richard Amerling, M.D. author Physicians' Declaration of Independence Scandal at the Phoenix Veterans Administration lifted the curtain of secrecy on the VA’s secret waiting lists. The VA lies while patients die. This is by no means a new phenomenon. The nation’s single-payer system for veterans has long been greatly overloaded. Congress tried to fix it in 1996 by passing a law requiring that any veteran needing care had to be seen within 30 days. The VA is supposed to have a wonderful electronic medical records system, and the EMR is supposed to be the magic formula for efficiency and quality. The VA gamed the electronic system to hide the waiting lists. Readers of the British press will be struck by the similarities between fudging waiting lists at VA hospitals and stacking patients in ambulances outside UK hospitals. Finding it impossible to comply with a National Health Service mandate that all patients admitted to an emergency room be seen within four hours, ho spitals kept patients waiting in ambulances outside the ER! Britain’s NHS and our VA system are both administratively top-heavy, command-and-control bureaucracies. All such systems tend to expand, along with their budgets, as administrators hire more and more people to do what they were supposed to be doing. There is no competition, and virtually no accountability. Every problem is always someone else’s responsibility. Mandates and quotas, rather than incentives, are used to motivate those in the trenches. Physicians working in the VA system, like the NHS, are mostly salaried employees. There are many fine doctors in both systems, but the incentives in place do not reward them for going the extra mile, seeing the additional patient, or doing another procedure if it means going past their shift. Inevitably, these systems create backlogs and lengthening queues for care. Americans need to take a close look at the VA—and not only because of their concern about poor treatment of our wounded warriors. It is the prototype for Obamacare. The intent behind Obamacare is to completely centralize control over health care, and thus turn American health care into one huge Veterans’ Administration. In 2011 I wrote that Obamacare was designed as Medicaid for all. Medicaid expansion is a key component of the law. If Congress wanted to expand coverage to the ten million or so individuals who fall through the cracks of the private/public health system, this could have been accomplished easily by offering them Medicaid or Medicare. These creaky systems could be made to work better simply by eliminating the price controls on physicians and allowing them to balance bill patients for the difference between payment and the cost of providing service. But expanding coverage was not the goal. The stated goal of government central planners, and of many medical elites, is to abolish traditional fee-for-service medicine. They wrongly blame FFS for out of control health care spending. This is absurd on its face. FFS medicine pre-dates the massive health spending inflation that was largely brought on by Medicare and Medicaid, and the domination by third-party payers. The lack of price transparency and the removal of most disincentives to utilization of health services are what led to the incredible over-spending on health care that we’ve seen since the ‘60s. FFS is the only way to insure the prompt delivery of needed care. But what central planners want is for all physicians to be salaried employees of either the government or of large hospital systems. Then planners could centrally control care through “payment-for-performance” algorithms built into electronic records. The promptness and quality of care will suffer. Obamacare is already becoming like the VA. A kidney transplant patient suddenly developed blurred vision. This alarming symptom could signal a brain tumor or other serious diagnosis. I would have arranged for an MRI to be done the same day. Her new Obamacare plan, however, offered a specialist appointment two weeks hence. The shameful backlog in our VA system could be remedied overnight by either giving veterans vouchers for care in the private, FFS system, or by building incentives into the VA payment structure. Ah, but this would require an acknowledgment that their top-down system has failed. Richard Amerling, MD is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and a renowned academic nephrologist at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Amerling studied medicine at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, graduating cum laude in 1981. He completed a medical residency at the New York Hospital Queens and a nephrology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He has written and lectured extensively on health care issues and is President-elect of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Amerling is the author of the Physicians' Declaration of Independence.

CRITICAL ILLNESS INSURANCE (CII)

Critical Illness insurance (aka Catastrophic illness) now can be obtained to 75y. $250,000 s usual amount. This provides independent means to prolong life. Otherwise Government Committee Guidelines decide your fate. Private Hospital medicine not available in Ontario, $250th. allows Medical Travel to USA & other Countries (e.g.Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and UK)

UK DAILY MAIL: HOW TO REDUCE PRIVATE SCHOOL FEES.

Private school costs: From the age of five to 18, it will set you back around £195,745 per child 1) A DISCOUNT FOR HELPING THE SCHOOL INVEST These can see parents save thousands of pounds if a school has charitable status. The average fees cost £4,765 a term — not exactly loose change — which is why most parents pay by monthly direct debit. But parents who pay their children’s school fees upfront as a lump sum — anything from a term to several years’ worth — can take part in these schemes. More... School fees: How to invest and pay for education I must live 7 years before money I gift escapes IHT - what about cash I withdraw and spend myself? Death duties aren't just for Downton: How to keep inheritance tax to a minimum The school will take the money and invest it in low-risk investments. Any profit the school makes is tax-free because of their charitable status. The school then splits the benefit with the parents. Those parents are given what the schools class as a discount based on the profit the school makes from the investment. And the school keeps whatever is left over. Someone investing in this way on their own could be hit with a capital gains tax charge of 28 per cent, unless a parent was able to take funds out of an Isa. Most top private schools have a scheme like this. Harrow, which charges £11,095 per term, describes it as a ‘tax-efficient advance fees scheme, which offers attractive returns’. Radley College, in Oxfordshire, claims one in six of its boys have their fees paid in advance.It adds: ‘It can be very beneficial when parents are assessed at the higher rate of tax.There should be no involvement with capital gains tax.’ The Independent Schools’ Bursars Association says: ‘A higher rate taxpayer may find the scheme attractive even at a rate somewhat lower than could be obtained in the financial markets.’ 2) START A FAMILY BUSINESS This involves granny and granddad setting up a family business and naming the children as the shareholders. The school fees are then paid through dividends to the children. The grandparents need to be wealthy and offer to pay for the school fees, rather than leave an inheritance. They put an asset — such as property or shares — into the family firm. When the school fees are due, they pay out a dividend to the grand- children by creating special shares to give them — calling them B shares or Z shares. This payment is tax-free for the children because it is classed as income tax and they should not have any other earnings. Tricks: Grandparents can set up a family business, name the children as shareholders and the school fees are then paid through dividends to the children Tricks: Grandparents can set up a family business, name the children as shareholders and the school fees are then paid through dividends to the children Everyone has a tax-free personal allowance of £9,440. It’s important that the grand- parents set up the business — and not the parents — because parents can’t gift investments to the child without incurring tax. This is so that parents don’t try to take advantage of a child’s tax status for their own gain. This scheme tends to be more popular with families fortunate enough to have wealth across several generations, rather than those who are self-made. Though, with greater numbers of grandparents retiring with large amounts of equity in their home, many are taking money out of their property to help relatives. However, this scheme is not straightforward. The actor Jack Hawkins, who appeared in The Bridge On The River Kwai and Ben Hur, lost a tax case in which he tried to have income paid through a family business to his children. 3) INVEST OFFSHORE FOR THE CHILDREN Parents can invest a lump sum in an offshore bond and then name themselves as trustees and the children as beneficiaries. The bond is then split into a number of policies — with each one having enough to pay out for each term of school fees. TiM iPhone puff By assigning the policies to the children, the tax on the gain will be payable by the child and not by the parent. Everyone is allowed to cash in £10,900 of capital gains a year without incurring a tax bill. The word ‘offshore’ conjures up pictures of millionaires sun-lounging in tax havens. But these tax-efficient schemes are often used by middle-income families. ‘These savings can be important for ordinary families. They’re making lifestyle sacrifices, such as not going on holidays or upgrading the cars, to afford the fees,’ says Tim Stovold, tax partner at Kingston Smith. 4) CASH IN A PENSION Under the rules, you can take a quarter of your pension pot as a tax-free lump sum from 55. As a higher-rate (40 per cent) taxpayer, you’d have to earn around £8,000 to pay fees of £4,765 after tax. But anything put in a pension has had income tax repaid to you. So, by taking it as a tax-free lump sum you can avoid any further income tax. It doesn’t matter if a person is planning on retiring at 55, they can still take their lump sum. For most, the money will come a little late for school fees. So, an alternative trick is to increase the mortgage to pay off the fees. Then, when you hit 55, you withdraw the lump sum and pay it off. 5) HAGGLE FOR A BETTER DEAL It is possible to haggle for lower fees. Find out what the school needs. Is it cash? Expertise? A legacy? ‘If a school is in the middle of a capital intensive building project, it may need cash upfront and so could agree to a discount if you pay the fees as a lump sum,’ says Mike Batchelor, head of investment advisers Broadstone Private Office. Would the school be interested in a bursary for the school in lieu of school fees? If you set up a philanthropic trust, there may be the expectation that there will be further donations through later generations. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/bills/article-2567743/The-five-tricks-rich-parents-use-cut-private-school-costs.html#ixzz2uRE86xT0 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

AAPS: "BUMPS IN THE ROAD" The need for an Independent Medical Profession.

Why We Need an Independent Medical Profession. By: Richard Amerling, M.D. In a recent debate, I pointed out that far from helping the uninsured, ObamaCare had created millions of new uninsured. My opponent responded “whenever you try something this big, there are always going to be some bumps in the road.” That statement sums up the totalitarian mindset of the hard left, which is, “the ends justify the means.” So what if millions lose their insurance? We are on the bumpy road to nirvana, where everyone has access to the same level of care, regardless of income. If a relative handful of people are inconvenienced, injured, or even killed, well, that’s too bad for them! It’s all for the greater good. To make an omelet you have to break some eggs! This is what they say! The hard left has a high tolerance for the killing of millions of “bumps in the road” en route to Communist totalitarian nirvanas in Soviet Russia under Stalin, Mao’s Cultural Revolution and “Great Leap Forward” and in the killing fields of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. More recently, Barack Obama used the phrase in reference to the attack in Benghazi, which killed four Americans. The medical profession’s Hippocratic ethic of caring for individual patients, placing their welfare above other considerations, stands in the way of the utopian statists. We stand for those who for the statists are mere “bumps in the road.” We care for those who are and who will be denied care, as rationing inevitably rears its head. We speak out for them. This is why the Left must control doctors. And this is why we must resist. We speak out against the destructive folly of standardized care where one-size-fits-all practice guidelines substitute for the considered judgment of individual physicians and their unique patients. Rationing of care in response to the shortages created by central planning, regulations, and price controls is only the beginning. Leftism is intertwined with anti-humanism, which is literally a cult of death. We see this in their lust to protect abortion, in their quest to limit end-of-life care, to accelerate death through starvation (as in the Liverpool Care Pathway) or euthanasia, which is rapidly gaining ground in Europe and in America. And we see this in the form of radical environmentalism, which views man as a cancer on the planet, as no better than even the lowliest species, and worthy only of depopulation. The pseudoscientific man-made global warming crowd seeks to de-industrialize the West, which would have profound consequences to health and health care, among other disasters. It would be wise to remember another pseudoscientific fad from the early part of the last century that developed a following among the intelligentsia. Eugenics, championed by the Communist Margaret Sanger, promoted selective breeding, forced sterilization, abortion, and euthanasia as a way to improve the human race. It never went far in the U.S. because our private doctors, watching out for their patients, didn’t go along. Not so in Nazi Germany, where the medical profession was under the thumb of government thanks to socialized health care. Doctors under the Third Reich not only went along, they actively participated in euthanizing psychiatric patients and deformed or retarded children. We know where this led. There are not only compelling reasons for doctors (and patients!) to declare independence, there is great urgency that we do so. A government with the power to declare private insurance contracts null and void will not long shy away from declaring private health care arrangements illegal. It is crucial that we rapidly establish a critical mass of tens of thousands of private physicians, who collectively care for millions of patients, before they get around to closing that hatch. Richard Amerling, MD is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and a renowned academic nephrologist at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. Dr . Amerling studied medicine at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, graduating cum laude in 1981. He completed a medical residency at the New York Hospital Queens and a nephrology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He has written and lectured extensively on health care issues and is President-elect of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Amerling is the author of the Physicians' Declaration of Independence and is a seasoned speaker and on-air contributor.