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© 1977 British Society for Rheumatology

meeting-report

THE NEW ZEALAND ACCIDENT COMPENSATION SCHEME*

R. W. BARTER

Princess Mary's Hospital (Rehabilitation) Cliftonville, Kent

Reference is made to legislation concerned with the introduction of the New Zealand Accident Compensation Scheme in 1974. The author’s experience of the Scheme is based on an exchange visit in 1975.

The basic principles are community responsibility and universal entitlement to compensation. Earnings-related benefits are paid to the injured person, and flat-rate payments to non-earners. The Scheme is administered by a three-man Commission with wide responsibilities for accident prevention, rehabilitation services, administration of funds, records, public relations, and an independent Appeals Authority.

There have been far reaching consequences on medical practice. The Commission construe the phrase ‘Personal Injury by Accident’ as damage to the human system which is not designed by the person injured: the implications of such a definition are briefly discussed.

The administrative costs of any similar Scheme in the United Kingdom would be enormous and it is doubtful whether the benefits would justify the cost.

*Paper read at a combined meeting of the Heberden Society, the British Association for Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, the Royal Society of Medicine Section of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation and the Irish Society for Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Dublin, October 14, 1976.


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