A total of 30 doctors from various hospitals and general practice throughout Fiji are currently undergoing training on ‘Permanent Impairment Assessment’ organised by the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment.
The four day training, which began this morning, is taking place at the Southern Cross Hotel in Suva.
The Ministry’s acting permanent secretary, Vilimone Baledrokadroka said the trained doctors will assist the ministry in the assessment of work related injuries and death which will reduce the backlog of compensation cases of previous years.
The training is part of the Ministry’s commitment to complete the Workmen’s Compensation Reform and fulfilment of Government’s commitment under the Peoples Charter of Change, Peace and Progress to strengthen the Ministry’s social protection and social security regime by working towards replacing the Ministry’s outdated workers compensation system.
Mr Baledrokadroka said the reformed system is designed to provide better health care and social security for injured workers and dependants of deceased workers, with strong governance features to provide social justice and at the same time effectively contribute towards alleviating poverty in this area.
“The training will develop the knowledge, skills and competencies of medical practitioners in Fiji in the evaluating work-related permanent impairment of injured persons using International Standards such as the America Medical Association Guides (AMA5) and the Fiji Workcare Guide for the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.
“At the same time it will build the professional capacity of the Ministry’s OHS and Worker’s Compensation Officers who have been involved in promoting OHS risk management and assessing workers compensation cases relating to occupational diseases,” Mr Baledrokadroka said.
For this very important training the Ministry has again secured the services of Dr Dwight Dowda, a renowned Occupational Medicine Specialist from Sydney. Dr Dowda has been actively involved in the training of our medical assessors and has played an important part in the documentation of the Ministry’s Assessment Manual.
“Out of 666 Medical Officers in practice the Ministry has trained 88 with 31 doctors now actively involved in conducting assessments. We will be training more doctors to raise their competency and consistency in their assessment of cases,” Mr Baledrokadroka said.
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