Reversal welcome - but still damaging

An editorial from the Nelson Mail

Even ACC Minister Nick Smith acknowledges the corporation mishandled the issue of counselling for sexual abuse victims.
That under-represents the situation considerably, though in terms of ministerial slapdowns it's refreshingly sharp. Perhaps Dr Smith ought to have given his own wrist a slapping while he was at it.
Certainly, the minister and the ACC board were both given plenty of warning that the cutbacks in counselling for rape and sexual abuse victims were potentially damaging. They appeared hell-bent on proceeding with the changes regardless, and brought them in last October. Now, just 10 months later, that decision has been all-but reversed.
Dr Smith is spinning the flip-flop as evidence that ACC is prepared to listen, and then act decisively. If only it were prepared to do so last year.
It is all-but impossible to gauge how much damage might have been done during the short life of the quickly discredited policy change. However, it seems a fair assumption that the about-face has been ordered because of overwhelming evidence that ACC's enthusiasm to trim the flab from its operation had instead nicked the arteries of a vital service.
With the announcement came news that people with a new claim, or an existing one that had been stalled within a dysfunctional system, could – as of this week – access up to 16 hours with a counsellor. That the corporation felt the need to move immediately by way of this interim step can be seen as an acknowledgement that in getting things so badly wrong, it needed to act promptly in order to minimise the damage. Indeed, it seems to have moved so quickly that counsellors late last week were still waiting for vital details on how the system would now work.
Perhaps there are some who continue to see counselling as an unnecessary luxury in tough times, and last year's campaign against the signalled cutbacks as being led by those with a vested interest. Yes, the protests were spearheaded by counsellors, along with members of the public who had benefited from the service. However, it is only natural that those closest to a service see most closely its value.
The tipping point for the minister was almost certainly the advice from an independent panel, appointed by Dr Smith to review the process. Clearly, the panel found itself somewhere between being disturbed and alarmed by what it found.
According to Rape Prevention Education director Kim McGregor, some victims of sexual violence – and the ACC parsimony over the past 10 months – would have become suicidal and harmed themselves as a result of the policy.
It is worth remembering that drives for greater efficiency, wherever they occur, inevitably have consequences with a human face. Some kudos, then, to the minister for setting up the panel and acting decisively on its advice. It is easy to be wise after the event but much more effective to act wisely beforehand. Critics of the minister's ACC efficiency drive have every right to point out that the warning bells rang long and hard last year, and ask hard questions about why they were not heard then.

© 2010 Fairfax New Zealand Ltd
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/opinion/editorial/4028417/Editorial-Reversal-welcome-but-still-damaging