Workers’ Compensation for Queensland Health Workers

Healthcare is people-centred but high-risk work. Lifting and transferring patients, sharps, infectious diseases, long shifts and urgent situations all increase the risk of injuries, including psychological injury. If you’re injured while working as a health professional in a Queensland hospital, health/medical clinic, aged care home or community setting, you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits.

How healthcare injuries can differ

• Fast-paced environments where decisions must often be made quickly;
• High manual-handling demands despite lift aids and workplace safety policies;
• Exposure to violence and aggression from patients or visitors;
• Biohazards and sharps risks (needlestick, blood and body fluids);
• Fatigue from shift work, double shifts and on-call rosters;
• Work across multiple wards or sites;
• Employers creating reporting and return-to-work complexity.

Common injuries and illnesses for health professionals

• Back, shoulder and other musculoskeletal injuries from patient handling;

• Needlestick and sharps injuries;
• Slips, trips and falls on wet floors or cluttered hospital corridors;
• Exposure-related conditions (infectious disease, dermatitis from chemicals or hand hygiene, respiratory irritation, especially from cleaning or sterilising agents);
• Violence-related harm (bruising, fractures, concussions) and security incidents;
• Psychological injuries linked to trauma, bullying, fatigue and burnout. 

Additional complexities associated with agency, casual and multi-site workers

Quite a few nurses, junior doctors, allied health care workers and support staff work through labour-hire or casual pools, or are rotated between facilities. 

Practical points to consider if injured at work:

• Report the incident to the site where it happened and notify your employer (for example, the labour-hire agency) so the workers’ compensation claim is correctly lodged;
• Keep copies of Work Capacity Certificates and rosters from all workplaces to help accurately calculate weekly benefits;
• If on a return-to-work plan, coordinate suitable duties with each employer so modified tasks are realistic across shifts;
• If travel between sites is part of your job, get advice about how that may affect your claim.

How a workers’ compensation lawyer with healthcare industry experience can help

• We understand hospital, clinic and aged-care systems, shift patterns and incident reporting;
• We know what evidence matters – incident reports, Code Black logs, staffing records, training and competency files, maintenance logs, CCTV and body-worn camera footage;
• We understand the complexity of multiple employers or sites.

What benefits are payable after a successful workers’ compensation claim?

If you’re injured at work in Queensland and your workers’ compensation claim is accepted, you may be entitled to the following benefits:

• Weekly payments to cover loss of wages;
• Medical expenses related to your workplace injury;
• Lump sum compensation due to permanent impairment; and
• Travel expenses for attending medical appointments related to your injury.

In addition to the above statutory entitlements, workers who are injured due to the negligence of another person or entity (often the employer), may also be entitled to bring a  common law damages. claim.

Where a worker passes away due to a workplace accident, death benefits are payable to the worker’s dependents (also, funeral expenses are met regardless of whether there are any dependents).

Time limits

Ordinarily, you must lodge your workers’ compensation claim within six (6) months of any entitlement to compensation. Applications outside this timeframe may be considered, but are rarely accepted by Workcover/self-insurers.

Speak to a Queensland workers’ compensation lawyer

Cameron Hall is a Queensland Law Society Accredited Personal Injury Specialist with more than three decades of dedicated experience helping injured workers recover the compensation they deserve.

Contact us for a no-obligation, free initial appointment. It costs you nothing to find out where you stand.