Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme

PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Sir/Madam, 1. This is the second submission that I have sent to your Committee. 2. Your Government now has a person forming a new Political Party called Fix NDIS. 3. Your Committee must act as soon as possible and Stop the Carers of people with Disabilities and people with Disabilities suffering under a system that only places additional stress and anxiety on those already affected by Disabilities. You even have people out there having suicidal delineation and to me that is extremely concerning. 4. There have been developments in our case and we now find out that the 8 months I spent getting all the medical information to support our application was in fact a total waste of time because the original assessment was made only using the form that was completed by the GP. Absolutely none of the additional medical information was even assessed because it was unavailable to the assessor. This was confirmed by a phone call from the NDIA. 5. We are now informed that even though it was a mistake by the NDIA, we have to wait for an internal review. Now Committee, wait a minute here – the original assessment was made in error and as far as I am concerned anybody who sends sensitive Medical Documents vis Registered Mail must be informed exactly who has access to those Documents and exactly what documents were received. 6. This is clear requirement under the Medical Records Privacy Act. The pwner of such records must be informed of who has access to those records and where the records are to be held. I am sure that the NDIA has breached that Act by not informing us of both receipt of those records and the location of those records. 7. I was also clearly informed at a Meeting that anybody currently receiving State Government funding would be automatically accepted for the NDIS but even that is not true so now we have staff of the NDIA even telling lies at Meetings. Yes does receive State Government funding (Block Funding) and receives services 3 times a week yet I now have been informed by the NDIA that Block Funding does not mean automatic acceptance.

• 8. I am totally sick and tired of the NDIA getting things wrong and not communicating properly.
• 9. They say the NDIS needs fixing, well gee I totally agree after what has happened to us and I know there are others out there who have been affected even worse than us.
• 10. So I have to ask your Committee, exactly when are you going to fix these problems and when are you going to take the Management of the NDIA to task over possible breaches of the Medical Records Act and clear breaches in the communication process?
• 11. No wonder you now have a new Political Party called Fix NDIS because I’m afraid the wheels are definitely broken and they need fixing now not in 6 months time.
• 12. We are lucky because we now have Synapse helping us with a Review request but my argument is we should not need a review request because the NDIA made the error to start with and the NDIA admitted that it was their mistake.
• 13. The point is Committee that when dealing with people with Disabilities there must be no mistakes and there are too many mistakes. At least under the old State Government system we had a suitably qualified person visit us at the house and actually assess functional needs.
• 14. I really hope your Committee reads this and takes action immediately because what is happening now should not be happening at all. Whoever drafted the Act must be called in immediately to solve these problems.