Ask Atos Healthcare disability assessment questions

spingoblin

my brother and a cousin of mine have both been going through the process of migration from IB/IS to ESA, both are being dealt by the same medical services office (bootle), my cousin recieved a letter less than two weeks after her atos medical informing her that she was being placed in the WRAG of ESA - this was back in november, however my brother who had a medical at the same medical services centre a few days earlier than my cousin has still not heard from the dwp about his medical outcome and his IB payments are continuing - in his ESA50 form he filled in he specifically requested several times for dwp/atos to contact his gp for more information about his (multiple) conditions, could this be the reason his decision is taking a lot longer? if his gp is being contacted for more info would it be atos or the dwp decision maker making the request?

smudge75

Lady_Andrea wrote: »

Your answer is in this FoI request
http:// www. whatdotheyknow.com/ request/atos_hcp_qualifications (NO SPACES)

thanks for trying to help but this isn't exactly what i am on about , i am asking whether a person with ME and fibromyalgia is seen by a doctor or a nurse in a WCA .

davethorp

volintier wrote: »

Thankyou Andrea for removing those irrelevant posts.

Plus some relevant ones

Pamelamac

Do the assessors take into account the fluctuations of a persons condtion? Surely any potential employer is going to want an employee who is reliable. Some days I can't leave the house and other days I can.....but I never know until I get up whether I'm going to have a good day or not. As a past employer, I would not have employed someone who may or may not turn up. I've been told 'I may not be entitled to Employment & Support Allowance' any longer. They have given me three weeks to convince them.

debby

I have rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis and have been found fit for work. yes I have good days, but if anyone were to employ me they would find me having a lot of time off due to pain, also doing things can cause me pain. also there is the side effects of the drugs, I inject a low dose chemotherapy drug once a week. my hair falls out, I get exhaustion, nausea, confusion etc.
who is going to want to employ me! if I don't tell them about my health problems I hv not covered myself should anything go wrong, if I tell them they won't employ me.
I am in a no win situation, I am ill but not ill enough for a benefit, I can work on good days but who knows what day I will be good on or for how long. I am not going to get better only worse.
I feel in limbo. why can someone in my situation with a chronic long term illness be deemed fit for work.
thank you

mazza111

smudge75 wrote: »

thanks for trying to help but this isn't exactly what i am on about , i am asking whether a person with ME and fibromyalgia is seen by a doctor or a nurse in a WCA .

Think they answered it when they answered mine, although not so specifically

There are a limited number of medical conditions that only a doctor would assess. However, as the assessment looks at daily function, the DWP have asked Atos Healthcare to deploy a range of health care professionals, all of which are fully trained and have the approval of the Secretary of State.

Don't think they will tell us what these conditions are. Although I do believe that rarer conditions like EDS should only be seen by a doctor. I'm sure there are other ones out there. A lot of doctors don't know about EDS/HMS let alone nurses, but that's the government's decision to allow HCPs to do these assessments.

Sup

All people want is a fair & honest assessment but many people find that the Atos HCP has lied on the ESA 85 medical report.

At my assessment i explained to the HCP what a typical day was like and told her i needed help getting in & out of the bath/shower, needed help washing/drying & dressing lower half but the HCP wrote i can do all these things myself.

I have since made a DLA Care claim but because the HCP screwed up my ESA 85 medical report i have been denied the care/help i need.

It's wrong that these so called Atos professionals are allowed to get away with ruining so many disabled lives.

schrodie

Why is it that so many of the audio recording machines that Atos fought so hard to avoid having to use (and as it turns out only certain "HCPs" are qualified to use them!!) are finding themselves "broken" thereby preventing the claimant from having their WCA recorded in order to prevent any ambiguity from what is actually said during the WCA and what eventually appears on the Atos report that is sent to the DWP?

schrodie

clouty wrote: »

Does ATOS suffer any penalty for assessments that find a person fit for work, which are then overturned on appeal?

Does ATOS have a target or targets for the percentage of claimants to be found eligible for the support group?

Lady_Andrea wrote: »

They wont answer

The Panorama or was it the C4 programme that exposed Atos certainly indicated that if their so called "healthcare professionals" found too many people fit for work they were "talked to" about it!!!!

So I think we can take it as read that Atos do have targets to fail people and Atos don't have to pay anything for the £millions it costs the taxpayer in successful appeals against incorrectly carried out WCAs. Atos are in a win-win situation unlike their "customers" and it's only going to get worse when they're let loose on PIP claimants. :eek:

mazza111

schrodie wrote: »

The Panorama or was it the C4 programme that exposed Atos certainly indicated that if their so called "healthcare professionals" found too many people fit for work they were "talked to" about it!!!!

So I think we can take it as read that Atos do have targets to fail people and Atos don't have to pay anything for the £millions it costs the taxpayer in successful appeals against incorrectly carried out WCAs. Atos are in a win-win situation unlike their "customers" and it's only going to get worse when they're let loose on PIP claimants. :eek:

Think it was the other way round from what I remember schrodie. It was if they put too many people in the support group they were pulled up about it