Atos medical, Lies and twisting what i say.

sallypalma

I asked for my daughter's ATOS assessment to be carried out at home and recorded it. I was glad I did as the report bore no resemblance to the actual medical. The Dr they sent seemed not to be able to comprehend or speak English and could not understand what we were telling him. My daughter is in a wheelchair following a serious accident, she takes morphine for pain and has had 3 surgeries and is literally bed ridden but according to his report she could walk unaided, bend, lift etc, he signed his name to all these lies and I was furious :mad:.

I threatened to report him the the BMA as he had out and out lied about every aspect of her medical condition and I told the DWP I had recorded the whole medical on video and I would send them a copy. They sent her forms for an "appeal" and the next Dr they sent was in her room for about 2 minutes and said "this is ridiculous, I can see how disabled she is" and told me she would do the report that day and send it to the DWP. I would definitely demand that if you have another medical it be recorded or try for one in your home, that way you can record what you want.

Makeandsave

What are the grounds for reporting one of these so called doctors?

colin13

is it true that the people who give u a medical at there centre,are not qualified docs,and they are just reading questions from a computer,,?

rogerblack

colin13 wrote: »

is it true that the people who give u a medical at there centre,are not qualified docs,and they are just reading questions from a computer,,?

They are 'health care professionals' - some are doctors, some not.
They are not - should not be 'just reading questions from a computer' - but the software used does guide them to what it thinks may be appropriate questions, and makes inferences from these.

In principle, the assessor should then check that the text that's been added is reasonable, and if not, correct it.

(For example - if you say you watch TV, it may suggest you can sit for an hour at a workstation, and can concentrate)

The software is in principle useful.
In practice, it can lead to some assessors who may have limited typing abilities, and are not good at operating it creating deeply flawed reports.

HB58

The assessors who are not doctors will be nurses, midwives or physiotherapists (or occupational therapists?). In some instances they will have as much - or little - knowledge and understanding of your condition as some doctors.

lemontart

if they are not drs why do they introduce themselves as such, - all they do is read the questions ignore the answers and lots of folk end up with zero and information apparently entered during the appt (no way is this a medical)baring no resemblance to what was actually said at appt. and appeals can take a very long time.

Infuriating waste of time and stressful on those involved

GlynD

What I've learned is that you need to know your own condition(s) inside out and know why the symptoms you suffer from preclude you from being able to take up and occupation. I have had very good advice from the CAB on this and now understand better what it is the ATOS (and other) people want to know.

rogerblack

GlynD wrote: »

why the symptoms you suffer from preclude you from being able to take up and occupation.

This is _NOT_ what ESA tests.
The test for ESA at no point says 'can do work', and does not have to identify any occupation you could do.

It is very simply a list of tick-boxes - you either pass or fail based on the result of these.

One can be quite disabled indeed, and not quite fit into any of the boxes.

Any arguments need to be specifically on why you meet the ESA descriptors - not that you can't do specific work.

HB58

lemontart wrote: »

if they are not drs why do they introduce themselves as such,

In all fairness, the HPC who carried out my assessment clearly introduced herself as a nurse. Of course, we will never know what she would have said had the session not been recorded...

It can be construed as assault if a nurse carries out an examination under the pretense that s/he is a doctor (at least, that was what I was told while doing advanced nurse training).

GlynD

rogerblack wrote: »

This is _NOT_ what ESA tests.
The test for ESA at no point says 'can do work', and does not have to identify any occupation you could do.

It is very simply a list of tick-boxes - you either pass or fail based on the result of these.

One can be quite disabled indeed, and not quite fit into any of the boxes.

Any arguments need to be specifically on why you meet the ESA descriptors - not that you can't do specific work.

You've wrongly taken issue with my style of prose. I've just done an ATOS medical a month ago and passed into the support category. I was briefed by the forces representative from CAB before I went so I knew how to explain my symptoms in order to FIT THEIR QUESTIONING. Their questions are designed to see which categories you fit into. It's no good saying: I have a terrible sore back and it's lumbago. You have to explain how having a sore back restricts you: can you sit for long periods, can you move from chair to chair etc.

The tests are specifically designed to see what work you CAN DO.