Wife must justify hospital visits

Press, 24 April 1984, Page 21

Wife must justify hospital visits

PA Auckland A woman who visited her husband in hospital every day for several months after he broke his neck in a car accident has been asked to justify her visits by the Accident Compensation Corporation. Mrs Tina France visited her husband, Mr Russell France, at Middlemore Hospital, and gave up, their rented home in Hawera to move to Auckland to be near him. The Accident Compensation Corporation now wants to know if her visits were necessary or just a moral obligation. Until it is satisfied with her explanation it will not pay Mrs France her travelling expenses to the hospital. After several weeks of treatment after the October accident, Mr France im-

proved, but last month a complication developed in the neck and he had to undergo several more operations. Before the A.C.C. pays Mrs France’s claim, it wants to know if the visits were necessary, and what help she gave her husband. A corporation spokesman said that before a decision could be given on expenses, the A.C.C. had to determine whether a person “was giving assistance or just fulfilling a moral visiting obligation. “There is a difference,” the spokesman said. “The answer we get will help us make a decision.” He said it was not that the corporation thought the visits unreasonable. “It just depends on the circumstances,” he said.