Press Release

Acclaim Otago

14.9.12

Non-Treating medical assessors for ACC to comply with Medical Council Guidelines.

Acclaim Otago’s spokesperson Denise Powell says she was heartened with this morning’s announcement from ACC in which they said that all medical assessors who undertake assessments for the ACC must comply with the Medical Council’s guidelines for non-treating third party assessors.

“Certainly this has not been the case in the past” Dr Powell said.

The council guidelines clearly state:

Recording a consultation

11. A patient may want to record the consultation by video or audio tape. You should consider such a request carefully and, if you do not consent, ask the third-party to arrange for another doctor to conduct the assessment.

This is based on the 2002 court case, Jackson v ACC (168/2002) in which it was determined that a doctor has the “privilege” to decide in what lawful way a medical examination will be conducted and the patient also has the “privilege” to ask for a tape-recorded consultation.”

Dr Powell says “We are aware of many instances, some as recent as last week, where claimants have been denied the right to record assessments by doctors and the assessments have then been terminated. Rather than the ACC arranging an assessment with a doctor who will agree to recording as per the guidelines, the claimants instead have their entitlements suspended for “non-compliance” because they did not complete the assessment.

Therefore, Dr Powell says “We are extremely pleased to see that the ACC expects all their medical assessors to comply with Medical Council guidelines, and that this situation will not arise in the future.”

ENDS

Medical Council Guidelines available here

http://www.mcnz.org.nz/assets/News-and-Publications/Statements/Non-treating-doctors.pdf

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