Media Release

24 March 2004

Peters Questions "Bizarre" Acc Rehab Plan

Rt Hon Winston Peters has asked the ACC Minister Ruth Dyson to explain why some Waikato accident victims are being forced to go through a bizarre ACC vocational rehabilitation plan or lose their payments.

Mr Peters said today the plan included the victims being forced to have a “nasal enema” by pouring water into their noses, sit cross legged on a floor with their thumbs in their ears, humming, and also being forced to stand in a paddock and laugh at each other.

“In one case, a woman aged 50, with many years of work experience, who suffered a long term shoulder injury has this year been forced through a series of nonsensical exercises.

“All she has asked for is physical rehabilitation so she can go back to work and she is deeply upset that she is being treated like an idiot.”

Mr Peters said the woman was also taken away from her own physiotherapist and put under the care of an ACC appointed physiotherapist and the exercise he prescribed caused an injury to her other shoulder.

“Something very strange is happening in ACC and the Minister should explain who authorises these bizarre programmes and explain how much they are costing the employers and workers who have to pay for them.”

ENDS

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