Ask Atos Healthcare disability assessment questions

halight

Sickness benefit contractor Atos Healthcare to review letters
By Andrew Fagg
BBC News

The announcement follows a "mistaken comment" in a letter - seen by BBC News - to a claimant with depression.

Atos incorrectly told the claimant that assessors were not required to be specifically trained in mental health.

The private firm said it would ensure that its letters were "clear and easy to understand" in future.

Atos carried out nearly three quarters of a million face-to-face assessments last year on people claiming the new sickness benefit, Employment and Support Allowance.

'Panic attack'
One of the claimants, Claire Whitwell, from Stockton on Tees, prompted Atos's review.

Ms Whitwell has social anxiety disorder and depression, but was declared fit to work following a medical assessment last year. The decision was later overturned by an appeals tribunal.

Continue reading the main story
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Start Quote

The person who did my last two medicals was stated as a registered nurse. She clearly didn't have any mental health training”

Claire Whitwell
Sickness benefit claimant
In June, she was asked to attend another assessment to see whether her condition had changed.

Ms Whitwell said she had a panic attack, in part because she said the assessor did not know anything about depression, and complained to Atos over the incident earlier this month.

In the reply on 13 August, seen by BBC News, an Atos customer relations manager explained there was no requirement for assessors to be specifically trained in mental health.

However, an Atos spokeswoman has now said this comment was "mistaken", insisting that all assessors do have specific mental health training.

"We have improved the way we assess those with fluctuating and mental health conditions," the spokeswoman said.

"All our doctors, nurses and physiotherapists have received specific training in mental health and there are now mental function champions in place across our centres to offer.

'No training'
But Ms Whitwell said Atos had made a terrible mistake and was now trying desperately to backtrack.

"The person who did my last two medicals was stated as a registered nurse. She clearly didn't have any mental health training," she said.

"The [Department for Work and Pensions] may as well have got a decision from a dentist."

Paul Farmer, chief executive of mental health charity Mind, said her case raised the broader issue of how people with mental illnesses are assessed.

He said: "Over a third of people apply for Employment and Support Allowance because they have mental health problems. We know that many are wrongly declared fit for work.

"We want the government to make sure that the health professionals assessing people with mental health problems have an appropriate level of mental health expertise."

In statements, the Department for Work and Pensions and Atos said they were working with disability groups to improve the medical tests, known as the Work Capability Assessment, and had recruited 60 "mental function champions" to give advice to the doctors and nurses carrying out the tests.

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Taken from the BBC website.

Please click on link for more info.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19370200

halight

Atos PR person.

Please see my last post.

Why are some of your answers full of inaccuracies?

Or are you saying that the BBC and other news sites are telling lies about your company ?

halight

Tanken from http://www.mind.org.uk/news/4580_work_capability_assessment_still_not_up_to_the_job

Please go to the Mind site for more Info




Work Capability Assessment still not up to the job


Today the Government publishes new regulations aimed at improving the reassessment process for those who currently claim incapacity benefit but leading mental health charity Mind fears that the Work Capability Assessment remains unfit for purpose and will have a detrimental impact on people with mental health problems1.

Mind’s Chief Executive Paul Farmer said:

We have long had grave concerns about the suitability of the Work Capability Assessment. It is not a fair or effective tool to determine whether or not someone with mental health problems is capable of working and early indicators are that many people found fit for work under the assessment later appeal and win.

We fear that the new regulations set out today by the Government will not improve this system and could actually make the process worse for people with mental health problems. It reduces the number of descriptors for mental health by a third which will make it even harder for people to be accurately assessed. The test needs to be more sophisticated not simplified to reflect the very individual impact that someone’s mental health can have on their ability to work.

Mind, together with the National Autistic Society and Mencap has already been tasked with developing proposals to improve the WCA and have been urging the Government to wait for this guidance before pushing people through a flawed test. In addition, there will also be the results of the revised WCA pilots being run in Burnley and Aberdeen which must be taken into account. Making changes to the regulations at this time is taking one step forward and two steps back.

Millions of people stand to be affected by these reassessments so it’s vital that the Government gets this right. There is a great deal of apprehension about this process and for people with mental health problems this anxiety can have a devastating impact on their health.

halight

The web is littered with charity's condemning the treatment of Disabled people at the hands of atos.
Especially people with mental health problems.

Atos reap, What has happend in the past to people was not right.

But we need to move forward. i would like to know what Atos is doing to make sure that and people no matter what is wrong with them, when they come to see your for a medical or when you go out to them. What are you doing to improve there safety while they are with your people? , what are you doing to make sure that they receive a fair medical ?

There have been many problems In the past with the inaccuracies that have been written in a person's medical reports by your HCP;s what are you doing to make sure that this dose not happen again ?

Atos_Healthcare_representative

halight wrote: »

I don't think they will close the thread down. If they did ATOS would probably take them to court the get the whole site shut down like they have done In the past, to other sites where people have spoken out ageist them.

I believe that is why ATOS are here and allowed to post.

MSE dose not wont to end up In court fighting and very big company like ATOS.

We asked permission from MSE to post on this thread as a pilot to see if it was a useful place to answer customer service questions. We can reassure people on the forum that we are doing our best to respond to questions and as part of this pilot we will take advice from MSE on whether it is helpful for us to continue to do this.
We understand many people may have specific issues with the policy, with the assessment itself or with us and we may not be able to deal with all of those. But we would like to try and provide useful information in particular to people going through the process.

halight

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

We asked permission from MSE to post on this thread as a pilot to see if it was a useful place to answer customer service questions. We can reassure people on the forum that we are doing our best to respond to questions and as part of this pilot we will take advice from MSE on whether it is helpful for us to continue to do this.
We understand many people may have specific issues with the policy, with the assessment itself or with us and we may not be able to deal with all of those. But we would like to try and provide useful information in particular to people going through the process.

Ok, That's fine.

But in truth. The people that go for there medicals are not your customers! The Government are your customers ! They are the ones that buy your service. Not the people having the medicals. Its the Government that you have to give good customer service too, Not the everyday person In the street.

mazza111

[text removed by MSE Forum Team]

ATOS rep: I can't see if you've answered yet. You did answer the question on how long it takes the DWP to receive the report, however, if a WCA report is held back by ATOS for audit purposes, how long does it then take the DWP to receive the report?

We're a full 2 (or is it 3? will need to check diary) weeks now after the WCA and still no report has been received by the DWP. I think this is really taking the proverbial now. Meanwhile people are struggling to survive on £56/week while you carry out your audit. Yes, yes I know, the money will be backdated, it doesn't stop people struggling on £56/week though.

schrodie

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

We asked permission from MSE to post on this thread as a pilot to see if it was a useful place to answer customer service questions. We can reassure people on the forum that we are doing our best to respond to questions and as part of this pilot we will take advice from MSE on whether it is helpful for us to continue to do this.
We understand many people may have specific issues with the policy, with the assessment itself or with us and we may not be able to deal with all of those. But we would like to try and provide useful information in particular to people going through the process.

The problem is all your "answers" can be obtained from the Atos Frequently Asked Questions website except specific questions like the make of recording machine that Atos try to avoid using!

I see that you are avoiding answering a very simple question about how many of these recording machines you now have. So can we assume that when you said that Atos now had more of these machines this was not the case and Atos still only have 11 which is a pathetic number of machines seeing that they only cost about £1400!!

So to try an preserve your credibility could you please answer this question again:-

"Given that Atos only had 11 of these machines to cover all 141 of its processing centres given your claim that "we now have more kit available to us" how many does Atos have now?"

Atos_Healthcare_representative

mazza111 wrote: »

ATOS rep: I can't see if you've answered yet. You did answer the question on how long it takes the DWP to receive the report, however, if a WCA report is held back by ATOS for audit purposes, how long does it then take the DWP to receive the report?

mazza111, apologies, I thought that I had said that it should only take a few days. I'm afraid I can't give you an answer about your specific case, but if you contact us via the details on our profile we can look into it.

staz

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

We asked permission from MSE to post on this thread as a pilot to see if it was a useful place to answer customer service questions. We can reassure people on the forum that we are doing our best to respond to questions and as part of this pilot we will take advice from MSE on whether it is helpful for us to continue to do this.
We understand many people may have specific issues with the policy, with the assessment itself or with us and we may not be able to deal with all of those. But we would like to try and provide useful information in particular to people going through the process.

I would not call 11 days and counting to answer what should be 2 very simple questions "doing your best". You have spent more time responding to people defending yourself or replying to things which as schrodie says can be found directly on your facts page, so rather than spending so long typing a response direct them there and answer the questions which cannot be found.

Surprise surprise! Yet again you are responding to a question posted today. Can we maybe get a response for the two questions you were asked on the creation day of the thread. Or, as I stated in an earlier post the questions you cannot help with you should maybe give a reply telling the person so they are not waiting for a response that isn't ever going to come.