Medical Panels and Workers' Compensation Claims

If you’ve made a workers’ compensation claim, you may be required to attend a medical panel appointment. Learn more about medical panels and what happens if you disagree with their review of your injuries. 

What is a medical panel?

Each Australian workers’ compensation scheme appoints panels of independent medical and allied health experts. Medical panels make independent, expert medical decisions about work-related injuries or impairment. The medical panel members for your injury: 

• Will be selected from the appointed list, based on your medical issue 

• Won’t include your treating doctor/s 

• Don’t work for your state or territory’s workers’ compensation scheme 

Different names for medical panels 

The name of medical panels varies between states and territories and include: 

Who decides if you must see a medical panel? 

The workers’ compensation insurer in your state or territory will refer you to a medical panel, for reasons such as to: 

• Provide medical guidance for complex injuries  

• Provide clarity or additional information if there’s been a disagreement or uncertainty about your injury. This might be if your regular compensation payments are stopped, but your treating doctor believes you’re not ready to return to work  

• Conduct an independent medical examination if your recovery isn’t progressing as expected  

• Assess the stability of your permanent impairment injury 

• Assess you for a lump sum compensation claim, such as permanent impairment 

Who sits on your medical panel? 

Who will sit on your medical panel depends on your workers’ compensation claim injury. The number of medical or allied health experts who sit on your medical panel will depend on your state or territory. In Queensland for example, your medical panel would include three medical or allied health experts. 

Medical panel members may include, for example: 

• Audiologist (for an industrial deafness claim) 

• Ear, nose and throat specialist 

• General surgeon 

• Infectious diseases specialist 

• Neurologist (for a spinal injury or a bulging disc injury) 

• Occupational physician 

• Ophthalmologist 

• Orthopedic surgeon 

• Pain specialist 

• Psychiatrist (for a psychological injury) 

• Rehabilitation physician 

• Respiratory physician (for a toxic exposure, silica or dust disease injury) 

What does a medical panel do? 

The medical panel’s role is usually to make an independent assessment of all medical reports and information, and hear your story, on the day of your hearing. 

Depending on your state or territory and the nature of your injury, the medical panel’s assessment might include: 

• Reviewing the cause of your injury 

• Assessing your continued incapacity for work 

• Assessing the stability of your permanent impairment 

• Advising on a specific question about your injury 

• Giving guidance on complex injuries 

The medical panel’s role is not to: 

• Give general medical advice about your injury 

• Provide treatment 

What happens in a medical panel appointment?

The process for a medical panel appointment varies between states and territories. You should take with you: 

• Any medical reports, test results, X-rays, CT or MRI scans 

• Someone for moral support (if you’d like to, though that person can’t appear before the medical panel or speak on your behalf) 

• A list of your current medications 

Your medical panel appointment will most likely: 

• Last for at least an hour 

• Be an opportunity for you to tell the doctors about your injuries and the impact of your injuries 

• Be an opportunity for the medical panel members to review the medical evidence of your injury or impairment and ask you questions, to better understand your situation 

The medical panel members may wish to examine a physical injury during your appointment. 

Any information you give to the medical panel can be shared with the workers’ compensation insurer involved in your claim. 

What happens after a medical panel appointment? 

In most Australian states and territories, a medical panel functions like a tribunal. The usual medical panel outcomes are that: 

• It must come to a decision within a specified time 

• Its written decision and reasons are sent to both you and your workers’ compensation insurer 

• Its opinion is binding, with limited options for dispute or review 

What happens after a medical panel will depend on whether you agree with their opinion, and the relevant workers’ compensation laws in your state or territory. Getting independent legal advice from expert workers’ compensation lawyers is important to ensure you are aware of the options available to you.  

If you disagree with a medical panel’s decision, depending on your state or territory you may be able to: 

• Apply for judicial review of the medical panel’s decision 

• Ask your workers’ compensation insurer to consider new medical evidence for a limited period following the decision