South Australian Numbered Acts South Australian Numbered Acts22—Assessment of permanent impairment
(1) This section sets out a scheme for assessing the degree of impairment (being whole person impairment) that applies to a work injury that results in permanent impairment.
(2) An assessment under this section—
(a) must be made in accordance with the Impairment Assessment Guidelines; and
(b) must be made by a medical practitioner who holds a current accreditation under this section.
(3) The Minister will publish guidelines (the "Impairment Assessment Guidelines") for the purposes of the assessment of permanent impairment (being whole person impairment).
(4) The guidelines under subsection (3)—
(a) must be published in the Gazette; and
(b) may adopt or incorporate the provisions of other publications, whether with or without modification or addition and whether in force at a particular time or from time to time; and
(c) must incorporate a methodology that arrives at an assessment of the degree of impairment of the whole person ("whole person impairment ); and
(d) may specify procedures to be followed in connection with an assessment; and
(e) may have effect on a day specified by the Minister by notice in the Gazette; and
(f) may be amended or substituted by the Minister from time to time.
(5) The Minister must, before publishing or amending the Impairment Assessment Guidelines, consult with professional associations representing the class or classes of medical practitioners who hold accreditations under this section.
(6) An amendment or substitution in relation to the Impairment Assessment Guidelines under subsection (4)(f) will only apply in respect of an injury occurring on or after the date the amendment or substitution takes effect.
(7) An assessment of the degree of impairment resulting from an injury—
(a) must not be made until there is evidence that the injury has stabilised; and
(b) must, subject to subsection (8), be based on the worker's current impairment as at the date of assessment, including any changes in the signs and symptoms following any medical or surgical treatment undergone by the worker in respect of the injury; and
(c) must be made by an accredited medical practitioner selected in accordance with the Impairment Assessment Guidelines.
(8) An assessment must take into account the following principles:
(a) if a worker presents for assessment in relation to injuries which occurred on different dates, the impairments are to be assessed chronologically by date of injury;
(b) impairments from unrelated injuries or causes are to be disregarded in making an assessment;
(c) impairments from the same injury or cause are to be assessed together or combined to determine the degree of impairment of the worker (using any principle set out in the Impairment Assessment Guidelines);
(d) impairment resulting from physical injury is to be assessed separately from impairment resulting from psychiatric injury;
(e) in assessing impairment resulting from physical injury or psychiatric injury, no regard is to be had to impairment that results from consequential mental harm;
(f) in assessing the degree of permanent impairment resulting from physical injury, no regard is to be had to impairment that results from a psychiatric injury or consequential mental harm;
(g) any portion of an impairment that is due to a previous injury (whether or not a work injury or whether because of a pre-existing condition) that caused the worker to suffer an impairment before the relevant work injury is to be deducted for the purposes of an assessment, subject to any provision to the contrary made by the Impairment Assessment Guidelines;
(h) assessments are to comply with any other requirements specified by the Impairment Assessment Guidelines.
(9) A number determined under the Impairment Assessment Guidelines with respect to a value of a person's degree of whole person impairment may be rounded up or down according to any principle set out in the Impairment Assessment Guidelines.
(10) Subject to subsections (11) to (15) (inclusive), only 1 assessment may be made in respect of the degree of permanent impairment of a worker from 1 or more injuries (including consequential injuries) arising from the same trauma (and any injury that may subsequently develop or manifest itself or develop after the assessment of impairment is made will not be assessed).
(11) For the purposes of subsection (10), an assessment (or parts of an assessment) may be undertaken by more than 1 accredited medical practitioners and their assessments combined so as to create 1 assessment under that subsection.
(12) Subsection (10) does not affect the requirement under subsection (8)(d) for impairment resulting from physical injury to be assessed separately from impairment resulting from psychiatric injury.
(13) Subsection (10) operates subject to any assessment made under Part 8 (and the exercise of any adjudicative function by the Tribunal or a court).
(14) An interim decision under section 21 will not be taken to constitute an assessment for the purposes of subsection (10).
(15) Subsection (10) does not apply in any circumstances prescribed by the regulations.
(16) For the purposes of this section, the Minister must establish an accreditation scheme after consultation with the Advisory Committee.
(17) The accreditation scheme—
(a) will provide for the accreditation of medical practitioners who are determined, under the scheme, to be suitably qualified to undertake assessments for the purposes of this section; and
(b) will work on the basis that the Minister will issue the accreditations; and
(c) may provide for the suspension or cancellation of accreditation by the Minister on specified grounds; and
(d) may be amended or substituted by the Minister from time to time after consultation with the Advisory Committee.
(18) An accreditation will be issued by the Minister—
(a) for a period specified by the Minister; and
(b) on conditions determined by the Minister.
Part 3—Early intervention, recovery and return to work