ACC’s ‘blame and shame’ approach won’t work

ACC’s ‘blame and shame’ approach won’t work

A “blame and shame” approach to health and safety in large businesses will benefit no-one, according to NZNO president Nano Tunnicliff.

Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) Minister Nick Smith announced yesterday that businesses paying more than $10,000 a year in ACC workplace levies would be eligible for a discount or a penalty of up to 50 percent, based on their claims history over the previous three years.

“Our experience in health is that blaming and shaming individual health professionals or individual health provider organisations is counterproductive. We want to develop a climate which encourages open reporting and a quality improvement approach. Imposing significant penalties on organisations is the antithesis of such an approach and runs the risk of employers failing to report accidents or attempting to imply they did not happen at work or pressuring employees into not seeking treatment,” Tunnicliff said.

If workers failed to seek treatment or failed to get the appropriate treatment for their workplace injury, that would compromise their rehabilitation, meaning increased costs for everyone – the individual, the employer, ACC and ultimately the country, Tunnicliff said. “No treatment, delayed treatment or inappropriate treatment for injuries risks poor long-term health outcomes and that benefits nobody.”

Nurses themselves were prone to injuries because of the nature of their work and knew that timely and appropriate treatment was essential for full recovery and a return to work.

NZNO is also wary the changes may be paving the way for the privatisation of the ACC worker account. “NZNO is committed to retaining ACC as a single publicy-owned provider. Overseas experience proves that privatisation means less efficiency and increased costs,” she said.

ENDS

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