Edition No.7

Response to current COVID-19 health restrictions

The Commission is closely monitoring the evolving community outbreak in NSW and have adjusted our response to it based on the Public Health Order issued on Saturday 26th June 2021.

Medical Assessments

Medical assessments currently scheduled to take place in Greater Sydney (including the local government areas of the Central Coast, the City of Shellharbour and the City of Wollongong) between Monday 28 June – Friday 9 July 2021 will either be rescheduled or proceed via videoconference.

During this time period, medical assessments will be managed in the following way:

• Assessments scheduled for Greater Sydney will either be moved to videoconference where agreed to by the parties and medical assessors or alternatively will be rescheduled for the next available appointment.
• Assessments may proceed as arranged where both the claimant and the medical assessor are located in a regional or rural area and have not been in the Greater Sydney area since 11 June 2021.
• The Commission’s team is contacting all impacted parties to manage the appointments on a case-by-case basis.

Medical appointments currently scheduled for the week commencing Monday 12 July 2021 and ongoing (after the stay-at-home orders are currently scheduled to conclude) will proceed at this stage. We may need to revisit this based on any further Public Health Orders issued in the meantime.

Hearings

In terms of hearings, the current arrangements detailed in Procedural Direction PIC10 – Hearings during COVID-19, remain in place. Given that our procedures for virtual hearings and mediations are well established, we are strongly positioned to continue our operations without interruption.

We remind parties who need to participate in hearings via videoconference that you need to join the videoconference from a private and quiet location, using a device with a microphone and camera. Strong internet bandwidth is required to ensure the videoconference can proceed without interruption .

For teleconferences and videoconferences where the parties and lawyers reside in Greater Sydney, clients should only attend their lawyers’ premises where it is reasonably practicable and where the client would be unable to participate from their residence.

Commission Office

Please note that the Commission’s office at 1 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst will be closed from Monday 28 June to Friday 9 July, with all staff working remotely and our reception unmanned. Any parties who require assistance should contact their case manager via the appropriate channels or call 1800 PIC NSW.

The former Dispute Resolution Services and Workers Compensation Commission successfully responded to pandemic restrictions during 2020 and based on that experience I am confident that the Commission can continue to provide our services to the injured people of NSW who require our assistance.