Russell Gutschlag said he had made "countless" phone calls, sent emails and spent hours in touch with the ACC while he awaited wife Teressa’s return from aged-care home Ripponburn, in Clyde.
Mrs Gutschlag broke her hip at the couple’s Wānaka home at the beginning of December and was taken to Dunedin Hospital, where she was operated on.
She was transferred to Dunstan Hospital on December 6.
The 89-year-old was then sent to Ripponburn Home and Hospital to recover, where she has been since December 23 while her husband corresponds with the ACC about funding for handrails at the couple’s Wānaka home.
"I am at the end of my bloody tether," Mr Gutschlag said when he spoke about waiting for his wife to return home.
"They won’t allow me to bring her home ... until the equipment is in the home for her."
Mr Gutschlag said every time he phoned the ACC he was put through to a new person.
"You have to go through the whole nine yards every time, as no-one has records of previous conversations."
Mr Gutschlag said he had been passed to several different departments, put on hold — at times for over 40 minutes — and told the organisation could not give him details and he could not act on his wife’s behalf as it was not his case.
The couple married in 1957 in Wyndham and retired to Wānaka.
Mrs Gutschlag is deaf, has no email address and cannot make the calls herself.
Mr Gutschlag holds power of attorney for her.
Despite that he had come up against multiple dead ends when speaking to the ACC, he said.
The ACC told Allied Media it had sent a form two weeks ago for Mrs Gutschlag to sign in order to allow him to act on the claim.
Mr Gutschlag said he had no recollection of that and could not find the form in his emails.
"Some people won’t talk to me because they say they have to talk to my wife — I am her bloody power of attorney."
ACC head of customer connection Hannah Coombes said the organisation could have handled its communication with Mr Gutschlag better.
"I’m sorry to hear of Teressa’s situation, and we’ve apologised to Russell for the difficulty he’s had communicating with us about her claim.
"While we have responsibilities under the Privacy Act to ensure we have the client’s permission before discussing their claim with anyone else, we’ve reviewed our communication with him and believe we could have managed this better.
"There were opportunities for us to have done more to support Russell to advocate for Teressa."
As of Wednesday, after Allied Media contacted the ACC, it had assigned a recovery assistant to be in contact with Mr Gutschlag.
"An urgent assessment is being arranged to determine what supports need to be put in place so Teressa can return home safely.
"We will continue to work closely with Russell and the hospital," Ms Coombes said.
Mr Gutschlag said he had driven the one-hour trip to Clyde from Wānaka to visit his wife most days since late December. It was all costing him money, and he had not claimed any funding for it.
He missed having his wife at home, and she was also wanting to come home, he said.
"It’s getting so bloody hard because we are travelling down there every day, one of us. We can’t leave the house in case someone turns up to do the equipment."
The ACC had been due to install handrails in the home, secure furniture and raise a toilet seat for Mrs Gutschlag, but there had been no confirmation from the ACC it would happen or when, he said.
Mr Gutschlag is a former crop and rescue pilot.
It was upsetting to have spent his life helping others, but when he needed it, he was being met with obstacles, he said.
"I have been involved with mountain rescue and bent over backwards and flown all kinds of s... weather to recover people off mountains, but when I come to need something myself, no-one is there."
The couple had not been able to find her a retirement care space in Wanaka.
"There is just no room."
