Cathy Verry could have avoided years of pain if she'd been told of her options before surgical mesh was inserted into her body unnecessarily. Photo / Supplied
Cathy Verry could have avoided years of pain if she'd been told of her options before surgical mesh was inserted into her body unnecessarily. Photo / Supplied
The number of New Zealanders who have received large ACC payouts after suffering medical treatment errors has doubled in the past decade.
Figures released to the Herald show that between January 2010 and October 2019, ACC has forked out more than $1 billion to people who were injured after botchedmedical treatments, misdiagnosis, post-surgery infections and reactions to medications.
The number of treatment injury claims paid by ACC has increased from 7660 in 2010 to 16,953 last year. The annual cost of these claims has ballooned from about $56m to $150m.
Advocates say the numbers are likely to be "just the tip of the iceberg" as most people don't lodge a claim with ACC because "it's such a horrendous process" - and many people aren't aware they're entitled to payouts.
One mother-of-four told the Herald she could have avoided years of pain and suffering if she had been told of her options before surgical mesh was inserted into her body unnecessarily.
"It 100 per cent could have been prevented. I never needed the mesh but I didn't know that at the time. It's absolutely ruined my life," Cathy Verry said.
Earlier this year, Dunedin mum Toni Adie-Kinraid died after ACC found she would have likely lived if her doctor had picked up on her cancer 15 months earlier.
"My chance to fight was taken away from me," Adie-Kinraid told the Herald in May.
"A long life with my loving husband and two beautiful girls was taken away from me because my doctor didn't think it was serious, and that's just not fair."
A treatment injury - which before 2005 was called a "medical misadventure" injury - is a personal injury that occurs during treatment provided by a registered health professional.
"Treatment" can mean a number of things, including diagnosis, a decision on the treatment to be provided (including a decision not to provide treatment), a failure to provide treatment, or to provide treatment in a timely manner, and the failure of any equipment - including implants and prosthetics.
The public money spent on payouts was compensation for lost earnings, hospital and ongoing treatment, and rehabilitation support.
Because of factors including demography, familiarity of health providers and patients lodging claims, ACC said the statistics could not be taken as an accurate indication of the occurrence of treatment injuries or quality of care.
This means many treatment injury issues are potentially not lodged as claims.
Personal injury lawyer and ACC specialist John Miller said the increase in claims was a result of the 2005 change from "medical misadventure" to "treatment injury", which dropped the need to show fault and opened the category to more claimants.
"It was anticipated at the time that treatment injury would bring in more claims, and it did."
Health Minister David Clark said New Zealanders had the right to expect a high standard of healthcare. But given the inherent risk with many treatments – infections, for example - it was unlikely treatment injuries could be entirely eliminated.
Health Minister David Clark. Photo / File
"The ACC pays a substantial amount each year for all kinds of treatment injury claims across both the public and private healthcare sectors.
"I note the number of new claims last year dropped slightly after seven years of steady growth linked to a series of factors including legislative change and population growth.
"The Government believes this support to improve New Zealanders' health and wellbeing is money well spent."
If ACC believes a claim shows "risk of harm to the public", the decision is sent to the director-general of health to follow up with the provider.
Clark said it was vitally important that clinicians and others working in our health services learn from these incidents to try to stop them recurring.
"Risk of harm notifications are an important part of that process."
Cathy's story:
Whanganui mum-of-four Cathy Verry should not have suffered "unbearable pain" for two years.
If her doctor hadn't used "faulty" surgical mesh to treat what was wrongly diagnosed as prolapse then she would still be able to pick up her grandkids, go tramping like she used to and work the job she loves.
Instead, she says her life has been absolutely ruined.
"It started to have an impact on me mentally. It was horrendous and basically you get to the stage where you can hardly walk and can't do any of the normal activities that you used to," Verry said.
An ACC report which granted the 56-year-old treatment injury coverage found Verry developed injury in her urethra causing bladder problems which was due to misplaced surgical mesh.
"These injuries are not considered an ordinary consequence of treatment and as such your claim for ACC treatment injury is accepted for cover," the ACC report stated.
Verry said before she was able to lodge the claim she had to go to three different gynaecologists who all told her it wasn't the mesh, it was just menopause.
It wasn't until she saw a specialist in Auckland that she was able to get a 3D ultrasound which showed the mesh was connected to pelvic bone and sticking out on her urethra.
"It felt like a grater moving around inside of me."
The surgical mesh which was connected to Cathy's pelvic bone and sticking out on her urethra. Photo / Supplied
The specialist was able remove part of the mesh, relieving some pain, but not all.
Verry filed a treatment injury claim in February and it was accepted in July. She now gets just under $500 a week for loss of earnings and is in the process of getting coverage for medical bills.
She wanted to share her story in the hope it would stop others from going through the same heartache she went through.
"I just wish I was listened to and also that I had been given all the information before the mesh was used."
