Personal injury cases involving the ambulance service : a mixed bag

Abstract

This paper addresses personal injury cases involving the ambulance service. New Zealand has a unique system of liability for personal injury cases due to the Accident Compensation Scheme and the bar to common law proceedings if cover under the scheme exists. After briefly describing the road ambulance service in New Zealand, this paper analyses the legal problems that arise within this system in regard to liability of the ambulance service or the individual ambulance officer. The main focus of the paper is put on the new "treatment injury" rules. It is the position of the author that these rules establish cover only in certain cases. In the next step the remaining cases are examined under the "accident" rules, leading to the conclusion that this category is able to establish cover only for a few of the remaining cases. In the following, the paper tests the remaining cases under the common law rules of negligence. The options of exemplary damages and complaints to the Health and Disability Commissioner are briefly described, before the paper addresses solutions to the legal problems. The paper identifies the connection of cover under treatment injury rules with the work of a registered health professional as the main problem. Consequently, it recommends the registration of ambulance officers as the solution that is the most practical and efficient to solve this problem.