have you been for an ATOS medical?

the_devil_made_me_do_it

I had to attend a medical today. I arrived 10 mins early as requested.

The receptionist checked my ATOS appointment letter & asked me to fill in a form stating DOB, full name & signature. However, she did not ask for my ID.

I sat in the waiting room for over 30 mins before I was called in to see the medical professional; 10 mins prior to appointment time & 20 mins after.

My OH accompanied me & brought with him a dictaphone in order to record the medical assesment. He did ask the medical professional if it was ok to record the assesment & was told no. The only way recording of assesments were allowed is if a request was put in writing to ATOS. Obviously, nowhere on the appointment letter did it say any of this or we would've written to ATOS with the request.

The assesment lasted less than 15 mins & I was mainly asked about the medications I take & what my last job was & whether my illness was caused by the job. He also scanned through the medical appointment letters I'd taken. He never once asked how my condition affected me & he informed me that he was writing to my GP & mental health team for more evidence.

I can't understand why the I was kept waiting longer than the time spent during the actual assesment. There was also no apology or explanation given as to why I had to wait for so long, considering they are so adament on clients arriving 10 mins early. I was also concerned that I was unable to record the assesment.



I'm interested in hearing about other peoples' experiences & how long it takes to hear the result of the assesment.

[Deleted User]

The recording issue is a much debated one,yes they do insist on prior notice if you want to an no they dont tell you that,in fact the insist on so many conditions that 99.99999% of interviewees dont persue it.
I`m surprised that atos are writing for more info as i`d have thought that was for the decision maker to do.

formaldehyde_perfume

I have a medical on thursday. How long will it be until they inform me of their decision?

richard9991

formaldehyde_perfume wrote: »

I have a medical on thursday. How long will it be until they inform me of their decision?

could be a week or so but ive known people to wait for months it all depends where you live and how busy they are

nanamoo

i had my atos medical for ESA a couple of weeks ago (21st oct)

arrived at 9:40am for my appt at 9:50, and didnt get seen until 11am!!! appt only lasted about 15-20mins, the person who i saw didnt seem interested in listening to how i am affected by my health problems, when i said i had been diagnosed with fibro and that the rheumy was checking for arthritis in my spine (awaiting results) , she said " oh well, at least the fibro wont last forever, you will get better"

i got my decision letter on the 6th nov, dated the 4th, i failed the medical and im now in the process of appealing, hopefully this appeal doesnt tale as long as my DLA appeal, which isnt being heard by a tribunal until at least feb 2011 (applied for DLA in may this year)

hopefully your hear back from them with good news soon OP

formaldehyde_perfume

nanamoo wrote: »

i had my atos medical for ESA a couple of weeks ago (21st oct)

arrived at 9:40am for my appt at 9:50, and didnt get seen until 11am!!! appt only lasted about 15-20mins, the person who i saw didnt seem interested in listening to how i am affected by my health problems, when i said i had been diagnosed with fibro and that the rheumy was checking for arthritis in my spine (awaiting results) , she said " oh well, at least the fibro wont last forever, you will get better"

i got my decision letter on the 6th nov, dated the 4th, i failed the medical and im now in the process of appealing, hopefully this appeal doesnt tale as long as my DLA appeal, which isnt being heard by a tribunal until at least feb 2011 (applied for DLA in may this year)

hopefully your hear back from them with good news soon OP

oh no, that doesn't bode well for me. I have depression, HMS and fibro.

It's good to know that people have experienced delays, now I know I should take a cushion to help me sit for longer periods of time (they'll probably have horrible hard, plastic chairs) and if it's an extreme case like yours, I shall lay down on the floor with it for support.

Are you now forced on to JSA or still on 'assessment phase' ESA? I don't think I could stand going back to trying to look for a job, if anything it makes me more depressed as 99% of them just point out how ill I am because I wouldn't be able to do even the basic job requirements. Plus the whole job centre faff on a bi-weekly, then weekly basis just makes me want to burst out in floods of tears.

I hope your appeal goes well.

nanamoo

hi, FP thanks ,im not sure what is happening now, im gonna call them on monday to see what to do next. i dont know if i will have to go onto JSA or if they will give me the assesment rate until the appeal goes through. i was awarded 6 points but hopefully with the appeal they will change that

the seats in the place i had to go to were not too bad, just take a book or magazine with you as if its anything like where i was, their mag's were all old lol

Prinzessilein

The idea of waiting 30 minutes for an interview worries me. Are there any other people in the Waiting Area? I really can't be with strangers for that long - especially in a stressful situation. Also, what sort of seating is there? I can't sit still for long periods either!

From what I understand, one of the 'fit for work' criteria that ATOS use is that you can sit for 30 minutes....presumably if you are in the waiting room for that long they simply check that box on their form!

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Prinzessilein wrote: »

The idea of waiting 30 minutes for an interview worries me. Are there any other people in the Waiting Area? I really can't be with strangers for that long - especially in a stressful situation. Also, what sort of seating is there? I can't sit still for long periods either!

From what I understand, one of the 'fit for work' criteria that ATOS use is that you can sit for 30 minutes....presumably if you are in the waiting room for that long they simply check that box on their form!

Could you not of asked for a home visit if you have problems with sitting ect. surely they must cater for people who have problems like that or is that too much to expect.

nanamoo

prinzessilein, the place i was at had high backed slightly padded seats in the waiting area, there was a couple of other people there too by the time i got called through.

yep there is a criteria for sitting/standing, i got my 6 points for being able to sit/stand for more than 10mins but no longer than 30mins at a time. i had to move about a bit from sitting to standing often while waiting to make the wait easier for me

i dunno if all of the assesment centre's are the same, but where i was it looked like the receptionists area was surrounded by that 1 way glass, so they could see into the waiting room but you couldnt see them, duno if it is or not but that is what it seemed like to me

the_devil_made_me_do_it

During my 30 mins wait, I had to dash to the toilet to vomit, as the anxiety was immense.