New Zealanders who injure themselves at work are being subjected to bizarre rehabilitation schemes that include being given nasal enemas, sitting cross-legged on the floor while humming, and watching the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The unorthodox treatments were highlighted by Winston Peters, leader of the opposition party New Zealand First who said that patients felt humiliated. Some accident victims in one region of the North Island, the Waikato, were being forced to participate in the schemes or lose their compensation payments, he said.

Mr Peters asked Ruth Dyson, the minister responsible for the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), to explain who had authorised the rehabilitation programmes and what they cost. He said that they included forcing people to stand in a paddock and laugh at each other.

One scheme "requires accident victims to undertake a nasal enema". Others patients were being forced to sit on the floor with their thumbs in their ears and hum. "How can she have any confidence whatsoever that such seemingly pointless exercises provide any genuine rehabilitative qualities or effect?" he asked.

"In one case, a woman aged 50 with many years of work experience who suffered a long-term shoulder injury has been forced to go through a series of nonsensical exercises. All she has asked for is physical rehabilitation so she can go back to work, and she is deeply upset that she is being treated like an idiot."

The exercise prescribed by the ACC-appointed physiotherapist had caused an injury to the woman’s other shoulder, he said.

One patient, Paul Miller, a former player with a leading rugby union team, the Chiefs, told New Zealand television that the treatment - which he received after rupturing a tendon in his foot - was "degrading". Another said she felt humiliated after watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which is set in a mental asylum.

Mr Peters asked Ms Dyson what the ACC was doing to ensure that the people it hired were "sane".

He said: "Something very strange is happening in the ACC, and the minister should explain who authorises these bizarre programmes and explain how much they are costing the employers and workers who have to pay for them."

Ms Dyson said that the details about the schemes were "new information to me", adding: "It is information that I find interesting, and I will be following it up with some rigour." She said that most rehabilitation programmes were beneficial to accident victims and most people were satisfied with their treatment.

The unconventional schemes are being used only in the Waikato region, and the ACC said yesterday there were no plans to extend them. The programmes were aimed at helping claimants to prepare for work or independence, and comprised "optional elements that included yoga relaxation techniques", it said.

It was made clear to people that they did not have to participate in the "nasal irrigation", which was aimed at improving their ability to cope with pain, it said. "The treatment-provider is emphatic that no one was forced to take part in the yoga techniques." The ACC added that the woman whose situation was highlighted by Mr Peters had participated voluntarily in nasal irrigation.

The ACC said that nine claimants who underwent a rehabilitation course in the Waikato had previously complained of sinus problems or headaches. "Five of the nine on the course found sufficient benefit from the technique to purchase extra equipment so they could continue the yoga nasal irrigation at home, including the woman," it said.

"The yoga master supervising the techniques spent 20 to 30 minutes with each claimant, and identified that most had sinus problems and/or headaches. So the yoga nasal irrigation and other pain management techniques such as humming and laughter were deemed appropriate.

"Humming is ... intended to raise self-awareness and block out distractions. Laughter releases endorphins, which also help with pain management."