Back to UMMC

In the middle of my busy schedule, I received an invitation to give a talk at UMMC, something which I would not say no to. Sure enough, the day came and the topic given was somewhat tricky and not something I had touched before, although well within my realm.

I cancelled my Saturday morning clinic for this - my talk was about 11.30 - and was there in ample time to have a look around and listen to the other speakers which happened to be my former colleagues.

The irrepressible Mrs DhillonAfter delivering my talk, I had to make a quick exit as I had a referral to attend to at Park City, followed by meeting up with Anita after her reunion. We then had dinner after that for my Mother-in-law's birthday. Not much time to linger around after the talk.

None the less I felt honoured and it was certainly great to meet familiar faces and say hi to some old friends.

GST Fever

Although the deadline for GST registration was looming, there was no end to the confusion on the actual program. Almost every week, there were new amendment, and the uncertainly was really eating away on us Doctors. The rumours that GST would not be charged onto patients was going to be a myth, but the Customs were not doing a good job informing the public of this fact.

It looked like everybody would be in for a shock come April Fools Day. I could just imagine how my patients would act when they see their bill.

So, yesterday, I had another briefing given by a Tax agent on how to handle the incoming uncertainty. I left the room with more apprehension than I started. It would be a nightmare once the system is implemented, as the amount of paperwork and submission I had to do every quarter would be a headache. And apparently you must use the services of a certified tax agent for the auditing. This would cost extra money and frankly unnecessary. And the agent who gave us the briefing unashamedly asked us to use his service and buy his software to help us deal with the invoicing. And that was the point when I left the room ....

So, I'm bracing myself for a stuttering start when GST would be implemented. Not really saying that I was looking forward to it ...

GST

The topic on everybody's mind at the hospital lately had been GST. Or Goods and Services Tax. Akin to the VAT in the UK. Will we as Doctors be affected by this new ruling?

The management got the Consultants from Ernest and Young in to brief is on the impact it would have on us. It appeared that we would be exempted. It may sound good initially but that carried some major draw back. It seemed that we would not be able to charge our customers GST for services but we were subjected to GST for rentals and equipment. Not exactly fair wasn't it.

The ruling had yet to be tested, and there would be uncertainty at the beginning. Some teething problems. Praying that in the end things would work out for the better.

Talk Done

So far I had only been in the room, apart from breakfast this morning. Been busy finishing off the slides and also catching up on some sleep.

Now that my session was done, I plan to have a visit into town right after lunch. Check out would be at 2 pm for me. Flight home 5.45 pm.

Anita had alerted me on what to get but I doubt if I could make it. Let's see ...

Sunday Talk

I liked to have Sunday afternoons for myself. Either taking my boys out to the park, taking my camera for a spin or just chilling, I prefer to keep it low key.

But sometimes, I had to go out and join the reset of the world. Such occasion was yesterday afternoon.

I will make it a point in the future to politely turn down any invitations for pharmaceutical talks on a Sunday afternoon or evening. Yes, they do provide lunch, and the topic may be interesting and all, but best to leave Sunday alone.

As it happened yesterday, looking around, not many of my senior colleagues were around for the talk. I myself didn't stay for dinner and I promised to take the boys out. I spent the earlier afternoon taking the E-M1 for a quick spin at the Bird Park.

Shame that the topic was quite good ...