Monday Muses~ Wednesday supplementary edition

I woke this morning and just kept reading everything that I have researched and information that I "tripped over" regarding the medico-legal IME process.

What I find interesting in this document is the guidelines refer to the medical specialists but not to the medico-legal providers who simply facilitate and coordinate the process.

Then we have the Record keeping – A medico-legal perspective

Again all of these dot points speak to the guidelines for the Medical Specialist. Nothing about the medico-legal providers.

It is important here to say that I have respect for the vast majority of medico-legal providers, I understand the role that the medico-legal process has within the overall workers compensation. The concerns that I have raised o'er and o'er again is the lack of real understanding that members of the injured worker community have regarding the medico-legal process.

*you may be wondering why a child or a young person can be involved within the workers compensation process; it is as simple as children can and do work within a family business, and young people can start work at age 13 or 14 depending on which State/Territory they live in.

• Put you at medico legal risk

I remember speaking with a Medical Specialist who told me that he relies on the medico-legal provider[s] he is engaged with to keep the records accurately simply because the costs involved regarding security and storage over the 7year timeframe was prohibitive. He also agreed that once he had signed and authorised the Reports he writes for the medico-legal provider he is doing so in trust that nothing within his Reports is tampered with.

When I asked the Medical Specialist if he was aware of the above information, he acknowledged that he was not aware and then pondered how many other Medical Specialists were also unaware.

This morning I took it upon myself to email the Guidelines for Medico-Legal to members of the injured worker community because they have the right to be fully informed and they have the right to ask questions. I also remined each of them that every part of their workers compensation claim is discoverable, it may take an effort to gain the original draft copy of any IME Report, but all of it starts by requesting the case manager provides both the original report and the transmitted report.

In all of this ignorance is not bliss ignorance is very concerning. The injured workers community remains the largest non-recognised collective of ordinary every day people in Australia. People external to the workers compensation process really have no concept of what life within the injured worker community is like for far too many people.

Please email me if you have anything to add or a concern that is bothering you [email protected]

It doesn't matter which rabbit hole I go down or attempt to follow there is no oversight, hence the reason Recommendation 10.12 needs to be followed.

I will end this supplementary edition of Monday Muses with this piece of prose in the hope that may help others to understand why ignorance can no longer be tolerated.

Before I do leave though I am oft asked why it is that members of the injured worker community who are assisted via Craig's Table seem to fair better than their peers.

There are many reasons however I suspect that one of the main reasons is that it is encouraged to use a different style of signature when sending their emails to any part of the workers compensation system.

A photo of themselves complete with a smile, their name [not a claim number] and the words "Member of the Australian Injured Worker Community" under their photo.

This image then personalises the member of the injured worker community; people within the industry react differently to seeing just how real the person is to how they react to a set of computer generated numbers. It is a small non-cost concept that places the person with the workplace injury back into the centre of their own claim.

Yours in service

Rosemary