My uncles a doc. He's 72, still does emerg and surgery assists every couple of days unless he's travelling. Had a country practice, big purebread hereford farm, and a dairy farm. Often saw him come in from the barn in rubber boots and his suit to sew up some other farmer in the office on the side of his house. His daughter (my cousin and her husband wouldn't take his practice, they are both GP's too). They wanted no part of his regular 18 hour days, 7 days a week and 8,000 patients.

He told me no doc he ever knew got sued for malpractice. But my ex wife was a nurse and the gas passing doc got sued, but turned out the thing was bogus. They caught the woman who went to court in a wheelchair walking in the mall during the court case. Dismissed.

Any article I've read states that it's the accounting that's the big problem. Here no one cares if you use a qtip, or swab, or bottle of whatever. You need it you get it.

A local paper reported that some surgeries are being done in border towns in the US on a fixed price basis. A friend down the street went to Henry Ford Hospital for gastric by-pass paid for by the Ontario gov't. Cheaper than sending him to Toronto.

They buy 100 cases or something a year, at a flat rate. Cross border medicine.

John Conley
Musica est vita