Ask Atos Healthcare disability assessment questions

The approved health care professionals' (HCPs) role is to carry out an assessment of the functional effects of the customer's disabling condition, and to utilise the information gathered to provide the decision maker with an impartial and independent assessment.
What specific disability analysis training do doctors, nurses and physiotherapists receive over and above their general medical training?

Before working for Atos Healthcare, healthcare professionals must have at least 3 years’ post-registration experience across a wide range of specialities, and this must include some generalist training. All employees are provided with additional, comprehensive training specific to disability analysis. For the Work Capability Assessment, this includes an 8 day course for all doctors and a 17 day course for nurses and physiotherapists.
Training of healthcare professionals can be considered in three distinct areas:

1. Generic training
2. Training to undertake benefit-specific assessments
3. Scrutiny and file work training

Now I have a question…


Mr X has had a quadruple bypass leaving him with left ventricular failure to those who don’t know (heart failure) and later develops type 2 diabetes which then complicates matters even more.

Mr Y who has had a single bypass with no other complications.


Mr Z who was born with Spina bifida (Almost all patients with Spina Bifida will require lifelong antibiotics to prevent infection. Approximately 70% of all spina bifida patients will have to have some form of drug therapy later in life to try to control their bladder over-activity, and approximately 70% will have to practice clean intermittent catheterisation on a lifelong basis)


Mr XX Who through an accident at work lost the use of the right side of his body.


Now all these people send in their filled out ESA50 which is then scrutinised by a basic nurse with no additional qualifications except a 17 day disability analysis course provided by Atos.
How is it that a basic nurse is able to learn so much about a person’s ability when they have only had an additional 17 days training? Bearing in mind the different complications that all illnesses may carry, and then make a recommendation about what they believe?



I would like a specific answer and not something copied from the Atos website.

Question for ATOS .

Can a decision be overturned with the intervention of another professional for example someone in local government ?. By that I mean a person declared fit for work by ATOS but not in the opinion of another professional .

Thank you .