Page 560 - Week 02 - Thursday, 24 March 2022
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In the event that a claim is ultimately not accepted, the costs expended on that person’s care up to that point are not covered. This avoids injured and ill workers incurring out-of-pocket expenses and prevents delays in treatment. Both factors are important contributors to a timely recovery and return to work. We have also been able to introduce streamlined claiming processes for certain illnesses that the government considers are often causally related to employment.
This includes post-traumatic stress disorder in the case of emergency service workers and COVID-19 in the case of frontline workers. The COVID-19 experience has highlighted the versatility of the new self-insurance arrangements for dealing with unexpected risks to work safety and injury management. Rapid and sweeping changes to working arrangements that were necessary to respond to the pandemic introduced additional risks to worker safety.
A greater number of staff spent time working in isolation, frontline workers have been exposed to occupational violence, and work demands have increased, with longer hours being worked and fatigue being observed in many roles. Claim volatility has correlated closely with major changes to working arrangements, including, for example, in the education sector during the transitions to and from home-based schooling.
These risks are being addressed through a range of new and refined initiatives to promote safe working arrangements. For example, Move More, Work Well is a 30-minute information, question and answer session available for teams who are working from home or working differently to usual. Sessions are presented by a physiotherapist and provide information on healthy work habits, including the most recent evidence on ergonomics and how to prevent and manage discomfort and pain. It can be delivered online and at a time that suits ACT public sector employees.
The addition of these programs is further evidence of the ambition of the government in progressing hybrid and flexible working arrangements which support the wellbeing of our most valuable resource, our staff. Another initiative is the virtual physiotherapy service, which provides staff with a 15-minute physiotherapist consultation, by phone or video call, to talk about how they are working and their symptoms. The physiotherapist provides expert information and strategies to manage symptoms, and recommendations for further care or different services to support recovery.
The virtual physiotherapy service complements the existing early intervention physiotherapy program. The early intervention program provides staff with access to high-quality treatment as soon as possible if they have a musculoskeletal injury in the course of their work. Almost 350 people with musculoskeletal symptoms accessed these services last financial year and the majority of people who accessed the program were supported to recover at work and maintained their pre-injury hours and duties.
Each of these improvements was enabled by the workers compensation self-insurance arrangements put in place by the project examined by the Auditor-General in report No 6 of 2020. I thank the public accounts committee for its interest in this important project. I would also like to acknowledge the work of WSIR and Treasury in the ACT
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