WorkCover and Injurynet

Preventative health is one of the biggest areas of focus for modern doctors—we aim for early intervention because it has the best health outcomes for patients. Injurynet is a preventative medical scheme that connects employees from a range of companies to doctors and other specialists, such as physiotherapists, for help to prevent injuries before they turn into WorkCover claims.

The way it works is that Injurynet can direct company employees to a local provider—such as our practice—and cover them for several appointments to see if there’s anything we can do to prevent them from acquiring any injuries or becoming unwell as a result of the work they do. It’s a workers’ compensation early intervention scheme, but they also facilitate work-related medical assessment, fitness for duty and medical advisory services.

Who is Injurynet for?

Many large companies are turning to Injurynet to provide this service for their employees, to nip any work-related health issues in the bud. Our practice has seen larger government corporations such as those involved with New South Wales health, through to railways, through to Wesfarmers Coles, mining companies, construction companies, waste management companies, and local businesses.

There is a broad range of potential issues we look at in these patients, and it can involve organizing a visit to go out and talk to companies, or to inspect their premises. It’s rewarding and interesting and can involve looking at preventative activities and putting interventions in place in the workplace to prevent further injury or to mitigate against any potential future injuries.

How does it work?

In practical terms, this work can take you far from the medical suite. We’ve had occasions where we’ve had to go out on site, to do anything from looking for significant safety issues in the work site—big hazards, chemical hazards or machinery hazards—right through to very simple things for desk-bound workers, such as using padded mousepads to prevent repetitive strain injuries at the desk, or using more ergonomic chairs.

It is similar to the sorts of audits SafeWork does, although the work we do is more preventative and, for obvious reasons, more medical. We conduct health checks at the individual level, whereas SafeWork would come in from an organizational point of view and try to address systemic issues and potential hazards.

We will address whatever is going on for a particular employee in their specific case, which often ends up being escalated through SafeWork if it’s something that can be implemented throughout the workplace to prevent future injuries.