The Federal Government has outlined new plans that it says will make the national workplace health and safety regulator best practice.

Minister for Workplace Relations, Bill Shorten, said that the Federal Government would move to initiate a national rehabilitation program with Comcare to bring it up to international best practice levels.

“Work related injury and illness has been estimated to cost the nation more than $60 billion every year,” said Minister Shorten.

The best outcome for all involved; employees, employers and the nation’s productive capacity, is getting injured and ill employees back to work sooner.”

“Comcare is in a unique position to lead this movement by helping us better understand the health benefits of work and early return to work of ill and injured employees.”

Mr Shorten said that under the initiative, an expert medical advisor would be appointed to define and promote benefits of work and an early return to the workplace following an illness or injury.

Comcare will work with the Institute of Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research to coordinate a national health benefits of work research program.

Comcare partnering with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the Royal Australian College of GPs will:

  • Develop a ‘therapeutic guideline’ to best prescribe work as part of a rehabilitation program, with associated training and education for medical practitioners on the health benefits of work
  • Trial a medical case conferencing model to help facilitate early return to work. Case conferencing involves discussion between employee, employer and the treating medical practitioner(s) on return to work and rehabilitation steps.
  • Test new approaches to ‘fit for work’ medical certification by GPs in respect of ill or injured works covered by the Comcare scheme
  • Provide support for GPs to access expert advice through online resources and telephone advisory service to help see work as a part of the recovery and return to health of workers
  • Define a national vocational rehabilitation policy to ensure consistent standards across Australia for workplace based rehabilitation.