“…that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.” wrote Franz Kafka in The Trial.

I really relate to this quote right now because I just can’t make sense of my current pending status.

I’ve now been waiting 8 weeks for 5 professionals to answer two questions… that an assigned WorkSafe insurer had the right to set.

That’s bloody confusing in itself.

Further to, I’m wondering a couple more things:

  1. how these 5 professionals, the Convenor, and the staff at Medical Panels convince themselves this process is helpful to me and other injured workers, and
  2. whether they enjoyed their Christmas as much as I didn’t

I called the Medical Panels to follow-up the report and express my anxiety on the matter. I’m feeling I’m going to explode. I’ve been breathing in so much my stomach feels like it has rocks in it and my neck feels like it’s fused with my shoulders.

The response I heard was ‘The report is due on Jan 21 and the Medical Panels also have an extra 7 days by law. It takes time, all five professionals need to sign off on the report’.

I’m also the one who has to wear an extra week because of the psych’s stuff up.

No one seems compassionate and they all appear to think this time-frame is acceptable. No one seems concerned I’m unpaid and battling a chronic health issue even though they heard all my personal and intimate matters. No one appears to have been assigned that role.

They’re doing the right thing by themselves and their employer (and their employer’s employer!) – but that doesn’t help me. And I’m the one in trouble here.

All I seem to be hearing are the rights and ‘important duties’ the insurer, and the Medical Panels and their staff have. Bu they don’t have a chronic health issue and they’re also getting paid.

Actually, I’ll be honest, they make me feel like I’m the reason of some exhaustion and that I’m causing them a pain in the backside (pardon my pun and remember I know exactly what a pain in the backside is!).

How can it be that I’m doing everything I can to manage chronic pain and return to some kind of work setup (a completely unrealistic and customised setup mind you), and those assigned to managing this process appear to have no respect for that or me?

The system’s priority appears to be managing and protecting itself. It’s so self-absorbed.

In the 2014 Medical Panel Opinion I am referred to as ‘she’ 183 times and not once as ‘Soula’.

That’s ugly. Very ugly.

Uglier still is the incorrect diagnosis of the 2009 Medical Panel opinion and the 0% impairment score from the 2011 Medical Panel opinion.

It takes an injured worker anywhere from 6 months to a year (maybe even longer), from application and assessment until (hopefully) the point of receiving their rightful compensation. I’ve actually been here even longer and had an atrocious time through two 93CD applications.

How can there be no simpler way to support an injured worker while they are attempting to return to work?

It’s disgraceful that any professional could see this process as an acceptable method for help. Of course I’m left to wonder if they’re stupidity is indeed blinding them as Franz Kafka suggests.

I would love for anyone working in this system to consider the scenario that their wages are being withheld – even for three months. And then that they will only be reinstated upon a ‘successfully’ justification to 5 strangers (by removal of their clothing for examination plus a grueling hour-long psychiatric assessment with 2 psychiatrists).

That scenario alone is absurd. Now could they imagine they have a chronic health issue and every day is difficult and full of sacrifices in order to achieve anything, and that they also have not earned a full wage or been able to work for many years.

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