ORANGE-BASED teacher librarian Annette Thorncraft says her life was ruined by changes to workers compensation after her leg was broken and she suffered nerve damage when she fell off a ladder at work more than two years ago.
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Mrs Thorncraft said the insurance company involved in her case denied her adequate health care despite her doctor’s recommendations, resulting in her being left unable to walk, having to buy her own wheelchair and suffering severe muscle loss, causing further health problems and delaying her return to work.
Mrs Thorncraft is a member of the Orange branch of the Injured Workers Support Network and was set to appear at a Return to Work Inquiry into the NSW workers compensation scheme on Wednesday, however was unable to attend due to a family emergency.
“Workers are being hurt and then in this system that’s set up they cannot access help and their injuries are made worse,” Mrs Thorncraft said.
Her story will be told in a phone interview instead, but nine other people who were injured at work did attend the inquiry hosted by Unions NSW in Bathurst.
Unions NSW assistant secretary Emma Maiden said the inquiry would visit 11 locations in NSW to listen to people who had been injured at work since a reform was made to workers compensation in 2012.
“Today we heard, to be honest, quite traumatic stories from nine individuals from a range of industries including a nurse, metal worker, disability support worker and a public servant who had had terrible experiences,” Ms Maiden said.
She said stories included misdiagnoses because of reluctance of insurance companies to pay for medical imaging, people having mental health claims denied, people attempting suicide, marriages reaching breaking point and people on the brink of losing their homes due to the system and an environment where injured workers were made to feel like criminals.
Ms Maiden said similar stories were heard at other locations and will be submitted to a parliamentary Law and Justice Committee statutory review of workers compensation, with submissions due on September 25.
Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
