industrial injuries medical

boobless

hi

My DD has put in for IIDB for an accident she had at work last year, she was taking cordyline palm trees from a trolley and one fell and the sword stuck into her eye and pierced her cornea, after months of treatment at moorfields eye hospital she still has double vision and a blank scar line across her vision.
She has received a declaration from IIDB to say they do class it as an accident at work and have called her for a medical in march BUT it is an atos medical and she is very apprehensive of passing a medical with them.

can anyone advise what the medical will consist of ? DD is not really open to her eye being touched by anyone outside of moorfields - she has all the necessary reports from her consultant stating that the symptons are likely to be permanant but she must wait until certain cells have regenerated and they will remove the cornea to see if the new cells will reinstate themselves.

she is now unemployed

thanks

mazza111

DWP have agreed this is was an Industrial Injury. This is the first part of the process in getting IIB.

A medical is then inevitable, quite rightly too. They can't just take people's word for things. The best thing she can do is to supply them with the evidence from the hospital/doctor. She can explain to the doctor, while she's willing for him to look at her eye, she's not happy for him to touch any part of it as she feels it may interfere with her treatment.

I must admit though, the doctor who examined me was very gentle. I got turned down for IIDB but they do agree it was caused by a works injury, it's just not bad enough atm.

From my own experience of ATOS, it's been what I've been expecting, even when I've was working with RM, through to IIDB and ESA. I don't doubt that a lot of people have had problems with them, but a lot of people haven't.

ukmike

She needs to get at least 15 points awarded to get anything.If she's not awarded that much just appeal,you have a very good chance of winning at the tribunal.

uponahill

boobless wrote: »

hi

My DD has put in for IIDB for an accident she had at work last year, she was taking cordyline palm trees from a trolley and one fell and the sword stuck into her eye and pierced her cornea, after months of treatment at moorfields eye hospital she still has double vision and a blank scar line across her vision.
She has received a declaration from IIDB to say they do class it as an accident at work and have called her for a medical in march BUT it is an atos medical and she is very apprehensive of passing a medical with them.

can anyone advise what the medical will consist of ? DD is not really open to her eye being touched by anyone outside of moorfields - she has all the necessary reports from her consultant stating that the symptons are likely to be permanant but she must wait until certain cells have regenerated and they will remove the cornea to see if the new cells will reinstate themselves.

she is now unemployed

thanks

As with all work related accidents, the DWP have to be certain that the injury falls within their remit. You have carried out the first step which is 1/2 way there.

Yes it is ATOS and what a shambles they are. Normally there will not be an examination - more a discussion of how she finds herself now with her eyesight and what the prognosis is.
They will try (hopefully) and assess her as to what degree of disability she has been left with. They give it as a %.

Having said that I can only recount what happened to me.
I received IIDB from 95 - 04. No problems - was awarded 80%

Then ATOS got involved in 04 for a reassessment. The report was a fairy tale. The drugs I was on were never known to be prescribed for my problem (prescribed by my consultant psychiatrist) & it was 9 years ago so it should have got better anyhow. Decision - nothing wrong with me - I was just trying it on.
So I left it - had no patience to argue with them and besides which I was way way out on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs and was in and out of a secure psychiatric unit.

Reapplied last year - ATOS again. Report said that they didn't know if I was genuine and to be on the safe side, they agreed with the 04 decision.
This time I created hell. Produced evidence from 04 to date, and within a week they accepted that I was still ill!!! Not only that, they conceded that the 04 decision was wrong as well!!
No good to me though as they cannot backdate an award more then 3 months! So I lost out of approx £19,000 of IIDB - all because of ATOS and my inability to appeal and fight the 04 decision.

So are ATOS for IIDB assessments fair - no they are not!!
Given their opinion on me in 04 I should have been taken off the drugs and refused anymore treatment.

The only explanation given to me from ATOS covering both the 04 and 11 assessments when I complained was that the assessing doctors were not trained in psychiatric matters and had very little idea on the drugs that are used - hence the the reports!! Beyond belief!!

uponahill

ukmike wrote: »

She needs to get at least 15 points awarded to get anything.If she's not awarded that much just appeal,you have a very good chance of winning at the tribunal.

That's for ESA - we are talking about IIDB - it seems that you don't read the thread properly! Doh!

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

uponahill wrote: »

As with all work related accidents, the DWP have to be certain that the injury falls within their remit. You have carried out the first step which is 1/2 way there.

Yes it is ATOS and what a shambles they are. Normally there will not be an examination - more a discussion of how she finds herself now with her eyesight and what the prognosis is.
They will try (hopefully) and assess her as to what degree of disability she has been left with. They give it as a %.

Having said that I can only recount what happened to me.
I received IIDB from 95 - 04. No problems - was awarded 80%

Then ATOS got involved in 04 for a reassessment. The report was a fairy tale. The drugs I was on were never known to be prescribed for my problem (prescribed by my consultant psychiatrist) & it was 9 years ago so it should have got better anyhow. Decision - nothing wrong with me - I was just trying it on.
So I left it - had no patience to argue with them and besides which I was way way out on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs and was in and out of a secure psychiatric unit.

Reapplied last year - ATOS again. Report said that they didn't know if I was genuine and to be on the safe side, they agreed with the 04 decision.
This time I created hell. Produced evidence from 04 to date, and within a week they accepted that I was still ill!!! Not only that, they conceded that the 04 decision was wrong as well!!
No good to me though as they cannot backdate an award more then 3 months! So I lost out of approx £19,000 of IIDB - all because of ATOS and my inability to appeal and fight the 04 decision.

So are ATOS for IIDB assessments fair - no they are not!!
Given their opinion on me in 04 I should have been taken off the drugs and refused anymore treatment.

The only explanation given to me from ATOS covering both the 04 and 11 assessments when I complained was that the assessing doctors were not trained in psychiatric matters and had very little idea on the drugs that are used - hence the the reports!! Beyond belief!!

A few years ago before Atos examinations I accompanied a friend to all of her industrial injuries medicals.
She was awarded first time and then went every year for around five years until eventually she was awarded it for life.
Everytime she went she had a full medical examination no different to what her consultant at the hospital did.
I am very surprized that they can decide whether someone is disabled or not by just talking to you.
Surely this is very wrong.

boobless

Thank you for your replies.

I think she is concerned because of the speculation that the HCP are not real doctors.

would she be allowed to ask the examiner if he/she is a specialist or trained in eye examination and make the decision from there whether she will allow the film covering the lens to be removed so it can be examined ( film is a cross between a large contact lens but a jelly cling film like adhesion but contains fluid) so hard to describe - she has drops that she applies 3 times a day and cream at night, i pressume she should take this with her.

As for diagnosis and prognosis surely the worlds leading eye hospital would know more than an atos HCP, but then again i have read the stories :eek:

how long after the medical will she know if her claim has been accepted ?

uponahill

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

A few years ago before Atos examinations I accompanied a friend to all of her industrial injuries medicals.
She was awarded first time and then went every year for around five years until eventually she was awarded it for life.
Everytime she went she had a full medical examination no different to what her consultant at the hospital did.
I am very surprized that they can decide whether someone is disabled or not by just talking to you.
Surely this is very wrong.

Mine is a psychiatric condition - all they did was talk to me!!
Mind you the conversation was a bit one sided.

uponahill

boobless wrote: »

Thank you for your replies.

I think she is concerned because of the speculation that the HCP are not real doctors.

would she be allowed to ask the examiner if he/she is a specialist or trained in eye examination and make the decision from there whether she will allow the film covering the lens to be removed so it can be examined ( film is a cross between a large contact lens but a jelly cling film like adhesion but contains fluid) so hard to describe - she has drops that she applies 3 times a day and cream at night, i pressume she should take this with her.

As for diagnosis and prognosis surely the worlds leading eye hospital would know more than an atos HCP, but then again i have read the stories :eek:

how long after the medical will she know if her claim has been accepted ?

It is a stated fact that the assessor will NOT be a specialist in the eye, no more than the 'Doctor' I had that they accepted had very little knowledge of modern psychiatric treatment.

But that doesn't matter - so they say - they are the leading experts is disability medicine - whatever that is when it is at home!

boobless

I do suppose it will be difficult for them to just "take her word" on what she can see as even the consultant cannot see what she see's but he has said in his report that the syptoms are condusive with the condition of the cornea and epithelial layer.
Her description is that she see's two of everything sideways and a shadow double of everything underneath (like shadow text)

I have read your replys to her and she seems to think that she will just stop the claim, this treatment has been every 3 weeks for 8 months now.

it was JCP that advised her to claim it because as she is unable to apply for most types of jobs (she cannot drive of course and does not have enough sight to negotiate journeys alone) they say her JSA claim should be invalid.

mazza111

Is the film visible from the outside, ie: If he was examining her eye with a light, he would be able to see it. I wouldn't remove it if it's not supposed to be removed.