Today is December 21st , 2024

Page 3 of 3

The matter of Dr. David Kuntz continues

Dr. Kuntz, of course, has heard this argument for years, and has a rebuttal.

"The government of B.C.," he warns, "is risking a huge class action from all the people in the northwest deprived of state-of-the-art care all those years because it failed to deal with college criminality, scientific fraud and abuse of the courts."

Far better, he says, for the government to face the issue head-on and claim discovery of the disc as a B.C. innovation.

It could then make amends to the people for the actions of past administrations by turning over the fast-ferry fleet to mitigate the damages and restore access to the people to state-of-the-art medicine".

HIGH PRAISE

'The Academy is quite disturbed about the unfair treatment of Dr. Kuntz by the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia.

In fact, the Academy feels that the College is "dead-wrong" about their judgments and decisions against Dr. Kuntz...

the Academy firmly believes that Dr. David Kuntz is one of the finest, if not THE finest, orthopedic spinal surgeon in the world today.

Perhaps, Dr. Kuntz is one of the best spinal orthopedic surgeons who has ever lived.'

--Sworn affidavit by Michael R. Rask, chairman of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopedic Surgeons.

FLOATING A PROPOSAL FOR HEALTHY PROFITS

In a letter to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, sales team for the fast fleet, or PacifiCats, Dr. Kuntz has laid out his plan for hospital ships:

- The required share offering will build upon the company's potential to monopolize provision of artificial-disc replacement services.

- There is no effective competition globally, and the patented B.C. cervical-disc replacements are known to be effective in treating and curing chronic headache, including migraine.

They are also effective in lumbar surgery, and are being copied in Germany. The potential market for services is enormous, as there is an existing recognized expenditure of $60 billion annually for low-back treatments in the U.S. alone.

- Arrangements with participating cruise ships will hold patients in the north to benefit the local economies of Kitimat, Prince Rupert, the Queen Charlotte Islands or Kitsault and Stewart.

There are approximately 30 Alaska cruises weekly delivering a million seniors annually to the north as potential candidates for screening.

- The mothballed coastal town of Kitsault near the Alaska border may be purchased and renamed Rejuvenation City as a holding area for patients seeking screening.

It has 220 apartments and 96 homes, paved streets, shopping malls, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, curling rinks and buildings to support a northern operation. Year-round employment could be created there to support the global operation.

- The business plan calls for construction of more hospital ships to serve as satellite hospitals stationed elsewhere in the world.

A CASE THAT COULD HAUNT CANADA'S CHIEF JUSTICE

If Parliament does grant Dr. Kuntz's request to impeach Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, overrule all judgments against him since July 1986, and restore him to B.C.'s medical registry, the legal errors he alleges will be revealed include:

- A legal judgment which quotes from a report which had earlier been legally sealed and its distribution prohibited.

This report by the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Kuntz claims, contained "untested, untrue, fraudulent hearsay" information which defamed him and interfered with a fair trial in any court thereafter.

- Chief Justice McLachlin had originally heard the Kuntz case in 1988 as a judge of B.C.'s Court of Appeal, along with Justices Seaton and R.P. Anderson.

Soon afterward Justice Anderson retired from the bench and in 1992 was retained by Dr. Kuntz's lawyer to review the case.

When he delivered his private opinion in 1992, Mr. Anderson (now deceased) wrote that the decision of B.C.'s medical college to delicense Dr. Kuntz was fatally flawed, even though he had ruled against him in 1988. First, legal understanding of the rules of cross-examination had since evolved in Dr. Kuntz's favour.

Second, the medical council had relied upon evidence unconnected with Dr. Kuntz's surgical skill and knowledge. Third, such other evidence as it did take into account had been condensed and had left out relevant material.

- Dr. Kuntz believes that Chief Justice McLachlin should declare a general mistrial, invalidating all judgments against him after July 31, 1986, since this was the earliest date that the College of Physicians and Surgeons first circulated the "untrue, untested, fraudulent and sealed" report in violation of the Evidence Act.

THE LAW OF THE JUDICIAL JUNGLE

In December 2000, Dr. Kuntz obtained material which he believes reveals a conspiracy between B.C.'s Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) and the Medical Services Commission (MSC, which helps determine which services are covered by medicare)--a conspiracy to defame him.

He strongly suspects this eventually led to the loss of his medical licence, since it predated his first investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

In a December 1976 memo written to Dr. J.S. Gibbings, the WCB's executive medical director, a WCB claims adjudicator wrote about "unauthorized surgery being carried out by Dr. Kuntz," which was a reference to Dr. Kuntz's habit of not waiting for authorization for payment from the WCB.

While some other surgeons did not operate if payment was not authorized, Dr. Kuntz says he operated on anyone who needed surgery, and then let the bureaucrats decide who paid for it; if need be, he wouldn't get paid at all.

The adjudicator's memo continues,

"I don't think that the Board's responsibility becomes unlimited just because Dr. Kuntz persists in imposing unauthorized surgery on workers who have claims with the Board. Possibly it is time that we consider taking some action against this doctor as this is only one of many claims where the Board has been placed in a predicament by reason of his unilateral action...

It is my opinion that [the patient whose spine Dr. Kuntz had repaired] had gross degeneration in the spine which pre-dated his first claim with the Workers' Compensation Board."

Dr. Gibbings then forwarded this memo to the chairman of the board of the WCB with a scribbled note: "He being the only orthopedic specialist in N.W. B.C. makes it hard to suspend him."

Several weeks later, WCB surgical consultant Dr. J.R. Farish replied in a memo:

"I don't know whether we will ever solve Dr. Kuntz' problem, which from our point of view is often proceeding with elective surgery without prior authorization.

He is one of our worst offenders in this matter... Dr. Schinbein has [talked to him] in the past and I believe there has been some improvement, but not to the degree that we would like to see."

"Here we have the recorded plot," alleges Dr. Kuntz.

"The WCB is targeting me at the top of the list for doing unauthorized surgery. The patient had had such serious pathology that the dye wouldn't flow through. They're saying someone should talk to me; they're trying to influence me."

However, he says, Dr. Shinbein told him to "just go ahead as before, and I'll okay the authorizations after the fact."

Dr. Kuntz says he usually had patients back at work by the time the payment was authorized. That made the WCB angry, he says.

"We were never angry," responds Gerald Massing, WCB senior legal counsel who has been dealing with legal battles with Dr. Kuntz for 25 years.

If the board has approved of a procedure, he says, it pays for all negative consequences. Thus, the WCB needs to keep control of its clients' medical solutions.

Dr. Kuntz counters by producing the minutes of a B.C. Medical Association (BCMA)/WCB liaison committee dated January 18, 1977. Among other matters, it dealt with authorization for surgery.

"The Board is continuing to have problems with unauthorized surgery, particularly back surgery, and the suggestion was made that payment should not be made for surgery which has not been authorized.

Apparently in some cases if payment is refused by the WCB, the surgeon bills, and is paid by, the MSC [medicare].

The Board is not really concerned about the actual dollar cost of the surgery [$200-$375, depending on the number of discs replaced] but is concerned about the long-term cost to the patient of inappropriate surgery."

"Do you see how they are beginning to slur the professional judgment of any surgeon willing to care for the worker after WCB refuses to fund care?" suggests Dr. Kuntz. "Now they are declaring jointly that unauthorized surgery has become inappropriate surgery.

Yet if workers are insured under medicare, they are perfectly entitled to have their surgery paid by medicare. This is a conspiracy between two paying agencies.

Neither wants to pay, so they defame the healthcare provider who dares to help the worker after the WCB has reneged on its legal obligations to him.

The MSC is also betraying the worker because they don't want to pay what they feel the WCB should pay, so they join the conspiracy. And the only way to handle it is to defame the provider."

Responds Mr. Massing:

"Dr. Kuntz launched the only conspiracy lawsuit the board has ever had. It was dismissed after appeal. We don't have the interest or time to conspire; we have a quarter-million workers we have to get back to work."

IT'S DIFFERENT UP NORTH

'Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, northern Canada has been built and survives to this day because of people like David Kuntz.

It is unfortunately all too common these days for doctors who do not normally stray further north than the ninth hole of the Capilano Golf Club in West Vancouver to fly up to the north and make invidious comments on those who practise in far more demanding and widespread communities.'

--Dr. William J. Jory, Hants, England, twice president of the B.C. Medical Association

Illustration:

Photo: Don Mackinnon / Dr. Kuntz: 'Return the spine to The Manufacturer's original specifications.'

Graphic/Diagram: A narrowed disc: 'Kinked' arteries result.

Photo: Lawyer's notes supplied by Dr. Kuntz: 'He is...to be crushed.'

Photo: Fast ferry: A medical merchant marine?

Photo: Don Mackinnon / Freedom at sea for Dr. Kuntz? Find a friendly jurisdiction that guarantees no lawsuits.

Idnumber: 200209020016

Edition: Final

Story Type: Feature

Note: Ran with fact boxes "HIGH PRAISE", "A CASE THAT COULD HAUNT CANADA'S CHIEF JUSTICE ", "THE LAW OF THE

JUDICIAL JUNGLE", "IT'S DIFFERENT UP NORTH" and "FLOATING A PROPOSAL FOR HEALTHY PROFITS" which has been appended to the story.

Length: 4454 words

Illustration Type: Black & White Photo Graphic, Diagram

The conflict of interest in this matter will be posted shortly

In the meantime here is a blog created by John Carten telling the story, in his own words about of Dr. John David Kuntz