Information about this practice, and a blog!!

Why I am a Christian.

Do you have to sacrifice your intellect for blind belief when you become a Christian?  So many people searching for meaning to their lives are put off by this possibility.  The answer is an emphatic “No!”  For many years before I became a Christian I believed I did.  Now I know the opposite is true.

So what changed?  I stopped listening to what everyone else had to say ‘for’ and ‘against’ about belief in general, and Christianity in particular, and began to...

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Every now and then a young person approaches me for advice on studying medicine.  The majority are extremely bright, capable and enthusiastic semi-adults, with strong desires to change the world and to ‘make a difference.’

I was once like that, once upon a time, long, long ago……….

I have wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember.  At a very early stage in my life, as soon as I could walk and talk, I also wanted to be a Royal Marine.  As an adult I got to be the closest e...

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I remember talking to the wife I had just met of an old friend whom I had not seen in twenty years.  She was an avid avoider of medical doctors, preferring to take her family to alternative health practitioners.    Learning I was a doctor, and to my dismay, she began telling me about her fantastic homeopath, and how he had sorted out numerous problems that previous ‘inept’ family doctors had struggled to heal.  Her approach, as I have come to expect, was both provocative and accusing.

 T...

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Few people realise how much money medical aid administrators consume to administer the business of processing medical aid claims. One of the biggest medical aids in the country takes 15% of the total member payments for administration and profit.

This is put into perspective when one realises that this is the same total amount as every consulting doctor in the country combined.

The medical aid has staff of about 4500, and I estimate no more than ten office complexes around the country. Consulti...
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Part of transparent and open medical care is an up-front discussion of costs and expected fees.

For consultations I work close to the old 'medical rate' because I do many rooms-based procedures, and these amount to a figure I consider fair return for my services.

For operations I base my fees on 'private rates' which may be significantly more than medical aids pay.  It all depends on what medical policy you have.  Some pay my fees in full, others as little as one third.

The days of the 'medica...
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