Say no to accident payoffs, GPs told

By RICHARD BRADDELL

WELLINGTON - The Medical Association has warned doctors not to succumb to pressure from employers to treat workplace injuries without first registering them as accidents.

"Virtually all GPs I have spoken to have had instances where employers have wished to pay the bill for a workplace accident in its entirety," said the association's chairwoman, Dr Pippa MacKay.

She said she was unable to determine the extent of under-reporting but she believed it was a factor in a 40 per cent reduction in workplace accidents trumpeted by the Insurance Council last week.

"We are aware of some employees being pressured by their employers to say it's not an injury, or perhaps it was a rugby injury or something," she said.

But while the association retained a neutral stance as to the merits of the private workplace insurance market or a return to state monopoly, it was extremely concerned that inappropriate registration of accidents could have long-term consequences for the victims.

"If they have a long-term adverse outcome, they will never have had an accident registered."

Dr MacKay said there was no way of knowing how many doctors had succumbed to employer pressure, but the association was advising them it was not in their patients' best interests.

However, she said, it was not fair to blame the new system entirely, because employer pressure on doctors had started to emerge under the old accredited employers' scheme.

Another issue was the possible fraudulent nature of the move if the treatment bill was transferred from the private insurer to the Health Funding Authority or, presumably, ACC itself.

Dr MacKay said farmers and self-employed people in rural areas were also frequently reluctant to have an accident registered, instead preferring to get anti-inflammatories or physiotherapy and pay for it themselves.

In submissions to the parliamentary select committee last week, Federated Farmers claimed on-farm savings of $16 million due to privatisation.