WorkCover & CTP Physiotherapy

Every Well Motion appointment follows the same seven-step structure. A claims appointment adds one step at the front and one at the back.

Before you arrive. Bring your claim number and your insurer's details if you have them. We contact the insurer to confirm you're eligible for services before your first consultation. That's a requirement placed on us, not an optional courtesy ⁴. If you don't have a claim number yet, tell us when you book. There are situations where treatment can start anyway, and we'll tell you which one you're in rather than turning you away at the desk. What to wear, how early to arrive and how long a session runs are on our FAQs page.

We listen first. What happened, what hurts now, what you've already been told, and (the part that usually gets skipped) what your job involves. Not your job title. The weights, the reaches, the hours on your feet, the ladder, the steering wheel, the night shifts.

We assess properly. Movement, strength, and what specifically you can't do yet. That gives us a starting measurement, which matters for two separate reasons: it's how we know whether treatment is working, and it's what the insurer needs to see to keep funding it ³.

We explain what we've found. In plain English: what's injured, what's driving the symptoms, and what a realistic timeframe looks like. If we don't know yet, we'll say that too.

You get a plan with a destination. Not "come back in a week." A written program with stages, each one tied to a real work task, and a point where we reassess and adjust.

We document it for your claim. Objective findings, progress against the plan, and where you're up to with work capacity, written properly, sent where it needs to go, without you chasing anyone.

This is the part most people are given a single number for, and the single number is usually wrong. What you can access without the insurer pre-approving it depends on how long ago you were hurt and whether anyone has already treated the injury ²:

Separately, any reasonably necessary treatment in the first 48 hours after the injury doesn't need pre-approval at all ⁴. Beyond those starting points, we request what you need on your behalf, with the assessment findings attached.

Two caveats. We still have to confirm your eligibility with the insurer before your first consultation, even when no pre-approval is required ⁴. And if you're an exempt worker (police, firefighter or paramedic), these exemptions don't apply to you ⁴, so talk to us before you book and we'll sort the pathway out first.

A return-to-work program that only ever happens in a treatment room isn't a return-to-work program.

Treatment for the injury itself. Manual therapy and hands-on techniques where they're indicated, to settle symptoms and restore movement, the part that gets you comfortable enough to start loading again.

Graded loading toward your real tasks. Exercise prescription built backwards from what your job demands. If you lift 20kg off the floor forty times a shift, that's the target, and the program steps toward it deliberately rather than hoping general fitness transfers across.

Honest capacity conversations. Sometimes the answer is modified duties for a fortnight. Sometimes it's that you're ready for more than you've been given. We'd rather tell you either of those plainly than let a claim drift.

A reassessment point, always. If you're not improving the way we expected, that's information. We review the plan and talk about what's next, including whether you need someone other than a physiotherapist.

The CTP scheme is separate from workers compensation, and the timeframes are tighter, so it's worth knowing where you stand.

For most people who make a CTP claim, the insurer pays the reasonable and necessary treatment and care costs related to the crash ⁵. What catches people out is the other half of that: Medicare does not cover the cost of medical treatment for people injured in a motor accident ⁵. Neither WorkCover nor CTP physiotherapy is billed to Medicare. If it's the Medicare and referral picture for ordinary physiotherapy you're after, that's explained on our Physiotherapy page instead.

Two dates matter. You must make your claim within three months of the crash, and within 28 days if you want to claim back pay for loss of earnings ⁵. Treatment before a claim is made is funded only at the insurer's discretion, and only within the first 28 days after the crash ⁵, which is the practical reason not to wait and see how it settles.

If your crash happened while you were working, you may need both a CTP claim and a workers compensation claim. Tell us both stories when you book and we'll work to whichever pathway applies.

Ahmed Elsayed, our Principal Physiotherapist, is a SIRA-approved physiotherapist (approval number 22498) and handles WorkCover and CTP claims personally.

That approval isn't a marketing badge. In the NSW workers compensation scheme, a physiotherapist must be approved by SIRA to provide services at all. Each approved practitioner is issued a unique approval number that nobody else can use, it's valid across every location they work at, and their name goes on SIRA's public list of approved practitioners ¹. SIRA can also decline, suspend or revoke an approval ¹, which is the point: it's a live status, not a certificate on a wall.

You can check ours yourself on SIRA's allied health practitioner search ⁷. We'd rather publish the number than call ourselves an "approved provider" and leave you to take our word for it.

We can treat your injury, document your progress properly, and argue your case for continued treatment on clinical grounds.

We can't tell you what your claim is worth, how long your weekly payments will last, or whether to accept an offer. Those are decided by your insurer under SIRA's rules, not by a physiotherapist. Ask us and you'd get a confident-sounding answer from someone with no standing to give it. For those questions, talk to your insurer, SIRA, or the Independent Review Office.