gwigs
27th July 2011, 07:59
An accident victim who became a tetraplegic in 1991 went without basic essentials for 15 years, suffering physically and mentally, while ACC argued over the level of care it would pay for.
In decisions that could cost ACC almost $2 million, accident compensation appeal authority member Peter Cartwright has made damning comments about ACC actions that resulted in Gary Baigent spending 15 years without the nursing care he needed.
Mr Baigent says the money was not the point. He wants to be able to make the most of his life.
Now in his 40s, Mr Baigent was a 23-year-old recently graduated civil engineer when the driver of a car in which he was a passenger fell asleep at the wheel.
At the time he had a "glorious" life enjoying the bush and sea, and was weeks away from starting his career working on the tunnel linking France and England.
After years of battling ACC, Mr Baigent now lives in Sydney, where he can find the nurses he needs for round-the-clock bowel and other care on which his health depends. The climate is easier on him than Christchurch where he had been living. Sun and sea help take his mind off his injury.
Mr Baigent is an "incomplete" tetraplegic, essentially paralysed from the neck down. He is losing even the small amount of arm movement he has, but still has some lower-body sensation.
His health problems are complex and he tries not to dwell on the importance of bowel and bladder care, but it is a life-threatening issue for him.
In the past he has starved himself when the skilled care he needs has not been available.
When no other option was available he spent two years in a rest home, a time he now looks on as imprisonment. At times ACC said he should use emergency department staff for the intimate help he needed.
Mr Baigent says he sees some sign of improvement in ACC but he would be happy if his dealings with it were over.
Because he lives overseas, ACC does not meet many of the expenses it would if he was living in New Zealand, such as rehabilitation, aids and appliances.
The exchange rate disadvantages him, as will the taxation rate on a lump sum payment of his backdated care payment.
Mr Cartwright has now confirmed that ACC should pay backdated registered-nurse rates. Mr Baigent's lawyer, John Miller, says this will be from 1991 till 2006 when ACC accepted he needed 24-hour care.
Mr Cartwright has previously said it "beggared belief" that for several years ACC ignored the advice of Mr Baigent's long-time GP that fulltime registered nursing care was needed.
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ACC had based its assessment of how much nurse time he needed as if nurses would suddenly materialise whenever Mr Baigent needed one.
One of the problems had been the bewildering array of fluctuating proposals and amounts put up by ACC in a desperate response to its apparent inability to source appropriate registered nursing care, Mr Cartwright said.
ACC has said finding staff, not money, was the problem, but Mr Cartwright found ACC had put in place "an ineffective and niggardly approach to the rehabilitation of a seriously injured accident victim".
- The Dominion Post
CNUTS:angry2:
In decisions that could cost ACC almost $2 million, accident compensation appeal authority member Peter Cartwright has made damning comments about ACC actions that resulted in Gary Baigent spending 15 years without the nursing care he needed.
Mr Baigent says the money was not the point. He wants to be able to make the most of his life.
Now in his 40s, Mr Baigent was a 23-year-old recently graduated civil engineer when the driver of a car in which he was a passenger fell asleep at the wheel.
At the time he had a "glorious" life enjoying the bush and sea, and was weeks away from starting his career working on the tunnel linking France and England.
After years of battling ACC, Mr Baigent now lives in Sydney, where he can find the nurses he needs for round-the-clock bowel and other care on which his health depends. The climate is easier on him than Christchurch where he had been living. Sun and sea help take his mind off his injury.
Mr Baigent is an "incomplete" tetraplegic, essentially paralysed from the neck down. He is losing even the small amount of arm movement he has, but still has some lower-body sensation.
His health problems are complex and he tries not to dwell on the importance of bowel and bladder care, but it is a life-threatening issue for him.
In the past he has starved himself when the skilled care he needs has not been available.
When no other option was available he spent two years in a rest home, a time he now looks on as imprisonment. At times ACC said he should use emergency department staff for the intimate help he needed.
Mr Baigent says he sees some sign of improvement in ACC but he would be happy if his dealings with it were over.
Because he lives overseas, ACC does not meet many of the expenses it would if he was living in New Zealand, such as rehabilitation, aids and appliances.
The exchange rate disadvantages him, as will the taxation rate on a lump sum payment of his backdated care payment.
Mr Cartwright has now confirmed that ACC should pay backdated registered-nurse rates. Mr Baigent's lawyer, John Miller, says this will be from 1991 till 2006 when ACC accepted he needed 24-hour care.
Mr Cartwright has previously said it "beggared belief" that for several years ACC ignored the advice of Mr Baigent's long-time GP that fulltime registered nursing care was needed.
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ACC had based its assessment of how much nurse time he needed as if nurses would suddenly materialise whenever Mr Baigent needed one.
One of the problems had been the bewildering array of fluctuating proposals and amounts put up by ACC in a desperate response to its apparent inability to source appropriate registered nursing care, Mr Cartwright said.
ACC has said finding staff, not money, was the problem, but Mr Cartwright found ACC had put in place "an ineffective and niggardly approach to the rehabilitation of a seriously injured accident victim".
- The Dominion Post
CNUTS:angry2: