ACC

ACC boss Ralph Stewart says a performance-pay scheme, which rewards staff for increasing the number of long-term clients they remove from the organisation's books, does not detract from a core focus of quality care.

ACC staff are receiving financial incentives to kick long-term claimants off the corporation's books official documents show, the Green Party says.

The political firestorm over ACC intensified yesterday with the resignation of chief executive Ralph Stewart triggering an urgent parliamentary debate over the changes needed at the state-owned accident insurer.

The resignation yesterday of Ralph Stewart as chief executive of the Accident Compensation Corporation, hard on the heels of the departure of chairman John Judge and two other directors, explodes any notion of an orderly process of incremental change at the organisation. Rather it has, self-evidently, become one of radical crisis management.

The political firestorm over ACC intensified yesterday when the resignation of chief executive Ralph Stewart triggered an urgent parliamentary debate over the changes needed at the state-owned accident insurer.

ACC chairman John Judge is to go following fresh revelations about the Bronwyn Pullar privacy breach this week.

An Otago ACC claimant support body has highlighted concerns about an "extremely broad" consent form claimants are being required to sign.

A successful claim for ACC payments for mental injury could result from a case in which an Otago woman had a mastectomy by mistake earlier this year, Dunedin ACC lawyer Peter Sara says.

ACC Minister Judith Collins is refusing to comment on speculation she will not follow through on her threat to sue Radio New Zealand for defamation.

Work on the privatisation of ACC was progressing well but ACC Minister Judith Collins would only say yesterday that announcements would be made about employer choice in due course.