ACC wants injured to hurry back to work

Doctors are being urged to take a tougher approach in signing accident victims off work.

The Accident Compensation Corporation wants to reduce the amount of time some injured claimants have off work - for their own benefit and to save money.

"It's well recognised that work is something that keeps people healthy," said ACC's interim manager of health purchasing, Anne O'Connell.

This week the corporation is sending copies of its new 124-page Return to Work Guide to the country's 3000 GPs.

It says: "Some GPs and patients mistakenly believe that rest and reduced activity ... will accelerate or help recovery - largely because of a historical and incorrect concept that extended bed rest and/or immobilisation helps to heal injuries, relieve pain and recover patient function.

"However, evidence now clearly indicates that prolonged rest may be harmful - that it not only delays recovery and increases the risk of chronic pain, but increases the risk of adverse complications from prolonged inactivity."

The guide cites research findings that someone who does not return to work for six months has only a 50 per cent chance of ever going back. After a year this shrinks to a 10 to 25 per cent chance.

Prolonged incapacity puts injured workers at risk of depression, increased drinking and job loss, it says.

"After about three weeks of employees having certificated incapacity for work, their employers become increasingly reluctant to keep their jobs open for them."

The guide suggests considering a graduated return to work for certain claimants.

But ACC wants to avoid the document being seen as an attack on workers.

"This is not about forcing people back to work before they're ready," said corporation spokesman Laurie Edwards.

ACC chief operating officer Gerard McGreevy said the corporation wanted to rectify the wide variations it had found in the length of work absences some people had for similar conditions. Some were too long, others too short. The final decision remained the doctor's.

The occupational health and safety manager of the Employers and Manufacturers Association Northern, Paul Jarvie, said he would welcome an attempt to get employees back to work more quickly since previous gains in this area were being lost.

"While most employers and employees would expect [staff] to return to work under some form of rehabilitation or alternative duties, the push from GPs is not as strong as it used to be."

The association was in "extended dialogue", trying to change doctors' issuing of medical certificates for sick leave.

Medical Association GP Council chairman Dr Peter Foley said doctors' skills in getting accident victims back to work as soon as appropriate probably varied and the new guide could help some of them.

DAYS OFF

* ACC pays for more than 1.7 million days off work a year for accident victims.

* It spends around $650 million a year on weekly compensation, including for some long-term claimants such as tetraplegics who can no longer work.

* Lower back/spine injuries are the largest single category for days off: 250,000 days for around 8000 people - 31 days each on average.