Ask Atos Healthcare disability assessment questions

halight

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

Hi odd socks,

Sorry for the delay coming back to you on this. Atos Healthcare HCPs are carrying out a different role to that of a doctor in general practice. Where GPs are treating or diagnosing patients our HCPS are carrying out a functional assessment against criteria set out by the government. This is different and doesn’t mean that one is overruling the other.

And from a an ATOS Nurse

Mum-of-one Joyce, from Mosspark, Glasgow, said Atos decision makers paid no attention to her professional clinical opinion and were only interested in cutting down the number of claimants.

She reveals all the questions she was told to ask were loaded.

Once I realised how manipulative the assessment system was, I got out immediately. The stress of it all made me ill and I have not worked since.”

But it wasn’t long before I realised no one cared about my professional clinical opinion. It broke my heart and I went home in tears every night.

Joyce said many claimants were set up for a fall even before they came into her office in Cadogan Street, Glasgow.

She said: “If they made it in by themselves, that was seen as a sign they could function

“If someone had a pet, they were able to function and if they smiled while talking about a pet, I had to mark down that they smiled spontaneously and were therefore not depressed.

Read full story here

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/nurse-makes-heartfelt-apology-after-1340838

halight

A GP normally holds all patient records, from any additional health professionals they might be seeing or have seen, so it is usually most appropriate to contact the GP. However, it is not always the case that a request is made to any health professional if, based on the questionnaire and any other information sent in, it appears that a face to face assessment will be required.

I think you will find that a GP hold some records but not "all"

.

halight

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Lady Andrea,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I can confirm that all decision making for Employment and Support Allowance is carried out by the DWP, not by Atos Healthcare. We do use a bespoke software application called LiMA. It supports consistency in the report and enables an electronic version to be sent to DWP, although HCPs are not driven by the application and they are always required to use their own clinical judgement and experience. It is regularly updated with the latest relevant medical research. We take GP/Healthcare Professional advice into consideration at two possible points – at the paper based assessment where the information may be sufficient to advise DWP that a face to face assessment is not required and/or at the face to face assessment where the HCP will assess relevant information provided by the individual.

The decision is made by the DWP, By and using the medical that you undertake.

So you do have a big input.

Redman_2

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Redman

Atos Healthcare will not have sent out an ESA50 to someone without it having been specifically prompted by a referral from the DWP.

No less than what I expected from ATOS PR, a stock answer.

Growing evidence points to the fact that ATOS are sending out ESA50's without referrals from the DWP.

After all, ATOS do need these regular reassessment to fill their coffers.

halight

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

isolation,

sorry if this did not happen in your case, but normally with every letter acknowledging the registration of a complaint there is a leaflet that explains the complaint process, including the different possible stages.

You say In this post that the complaint process is in a leaflet.

But when you were asked about this the other day you told us that.

isolation, the procedures we follow are owned by the DWP, which is why we aren’t able provide them and requests need to be directed to DWP. However, details about how to complain are available on request if you contact us, and can be found on our website and in assessment centres.

See here.https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4382647

Answer to this post.

Originally Posted by isolation
Hi,

I have asked this amongst other questions before. I'll keep it straightforward.

Originally Posted by isolation
Hi,

I have asked this amongst other questions before. I'll keep it straightforward.

Could you please tell me why ATOS refuse to give 'customers' access to their complaints procedure on request ?

Thank you

So what is it,

Can you please clean this up for us.

halight

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

Hi odd socks,

Sorry for the delay coming back to you on this. Atos Healthcare HCPs are carrying out a different role to that of a doctor in general practice. Where GPs are treating or diagnosing patients our HCPS are carrying out a functional assessment against criteria set out by the government. This is different and doesn’t mean that one is overruling the other.

You have been over ruling Consultants.

One psoter here has a letter from yourself stating that he will be for work in three months time!

Yet he has ME. His doctors Did not think he would be fit for work any time soon because of his health and over two years later he still havs ME ! And is still not fit for work.


ME Dose not go away over night. It can ease, But in a lot of cases it can come back full blown just months down the line.
This is just one case. MP's have hundreds of case notes all talking about similar things.

That is why they are angry !

Atos_Healthcare_representative

halight wrote: »

You say In this post that the complaint process is in a leaflet.

But when you were asked about this the other day you told us that.



See here.https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4382647

Answer to this post.

Originally Posted by isolation
Hi,

I have asked this amongst other questions before. I'll keep it straightforward.



So what is it,

Can you please clean this up for us.

Hi Halight,

the complaint procedures asked about and referred to are the guidance followed by staff in relation to processing and investigating a complaint. It is these that are owned by DWP and need to be requested from them. Information for people about how to complain is available and it was this that was being referred to in the other answer. I hope this helps.

Muttleythefrog

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

Muttleythefrog, apologies if I wasn’t clear in the answer. When I said consistent I was referring to the quality, which means that each assessment is based on the individual’s circumstances applied against the ESA descriptors.

You were very clear... and you were not. Now dare I waste another hour of my life scanning back to see if you've actually answered the questions I've asked.

Muttleythefrog

Atos_Healthcare_company_representative wrote: »

Muttleythefrog, firstly, apologies for the delay in answering your questions.



If there is a questionnaire the health care professional should read it as part of the assessment. It is always possible that the same questions might need to be asked, to investigate further or check that the information is up-to-date, and so it might not always appear like they have read it, but this is obviously not the case for your assessment. If you don’t think that information from the questionnaire has been considered as it should have been please contact us to discuss further.



For Work Capability Assessments conducted in assessment centres HCPs are not generally allocated to specific cases. Assessments take different lengths of time, so it isn’t known exactly when each HCP would be available for another case. When a HCP has finished writing a report they take the next case that is due to be seen. However, if you can contact us we can discuss your circumstances. I’m afraid I’m not sure what situations you are referring to when you say ‘turned down for medical by the HCP’, but if you could clarify I’ll try to address that part of your query as well.

Wow you did answer... I'm stunned. It has taken almost 18 months! So apologies for my surprise.

Ah... you don't actually answer my question. I do not want to discuss my case further... I want to know what to do if the situation arises again...the past is the past... done dusted... dealt with.. finito. I'm actually in the middle of a reassessment now... I want to know what I or other customers should do if the situation arises (and as you admit it should not!) as it seems to do frequently. Customers need to know what to do when it occurs.. what should a customer do if faced with a real time situation of finding the HCP has not studied the evidence (such as compelted ESA50) in advance of calling customer to assessment for face to face medical? Either you have advice or you do not... what you suggest is not advice... it is attempt to get the issue out of public sight.

My second question. Thankyou for confirming ATOS operate conveyor belt system and so it is not at all possible for customers to in advance of medical for reasons of safety or otherwise find out who will conduct their assessment. This is course contradicts information given in FOI request that I received - ATOS must've supplied a HCPs details to the DWP to release the information knowing that information was in all probability not going to be correct. And again, no I will not be taken away from the public domain to discuss this matter privately. This seems to be your tactic for dealing with difficult issues - I'm not going to play your PR stooge. Regarding people being turned down for medical this is widely reported (seen cases even on MSE)... and it arises because of the very thing you have just disclosed. Because some HCPs are not qualified to deal with some customer circumstances they find themselves on the day confronted by customers they soon learn they should not be assessing and so they terminate or decline the medical. (In some cases only in the actual assessment does it become obvious for the reasons underpinning my first question.. namely HCPS are not often studying even basic information about the customer prior to assessing them). Now we know how this problem arises. It is a shame it took 18 months for me to get confirmation.

I feel this conveyor belt system is a really poor way of operating with regard the customer. Many customers are vulnerable and suffer issue of trust, cognition, anxiety etc. For them to not be able to at least find out the occupation of the person who will assess them... be able to conduct no check to determine whether they will be examined by someone qualified to do so... is in some cases going to be adversely affective. In fact in my case as I advised.. I have to plan in great detail everything I do... to extreme detail... not knowing who I will meet is a serious problem that actually presents really serious concerns and risks. I can only hope I do not have to have another face to face assessment. As a patient of the NHS I can always get this information and so reduce the risks to people including myself. ATOS sadly do not care about patients... in fact that's why they deliberately (yes I've seen the internal memos from friends who work for ATOS HC) don't even refer to them as such.

walter_wobblebottom

I have no idea how anyone who works for ATOS healthcare sleeps at night.