ReturnToWorkSA

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:32): A supplementary: minister, what sorts of supports are you putting in for ongoing medical expenses for people assessed at slightly less than 30 per cent impairment?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:32): Good question. I thank the honourable member for her question. I know that the member for Florey has had a longstanding interest, along with other members, in this area. The answer is that every person who is a person injured at work is entitled to receive all of the benefits provided for under the scheme, and it is their right, obviously, to receive what the scheme entitles them to receive. Of course, there is a process by which they can agitate an appeal, if they feel they have not been provided with that.

In summary, the position basically is that they have ongoing support for medical expenses. In general terms, medical expenses can continue for up to 12 months beyond the period of time that income maintenance under the scheme terminates. Also, the member for Florey might already know but, just to remind her, it is often the case that we have a person who has an injury at work and when they go to the doctor the doctor says, 'We want to leave you for a while to stabilise.'

This can happen frequently in things like spinal injuries and things of that nature. It might well be said to a person, 'The best thing for you medically is you wait five years, do your best and, when it gets bad enough, come back to me and we will do a procedure.' For those people, the scheme acknowledges that they have that future need for a medical procedure.

They can register under the scheme by simply giving notice, in effect, to the scheme that they have medical advice to the effect that, at some point in time in the future, a work injury will require surgery or other additional treatment. In those circumstances, they have that treatment covered and, if they require a period of up to six months for recuperation after that additional treatment, they are able to access income maintenance for that additional period of up to six months. So, the scheme contemplates there will be people who will have future need for treatment well beyond the expiry of their claim.