DWP told doctor to stop medical certificates

Morlock

satarical wrote: »

The easiest way of sorting this out is to stop these ESA payments being mede whilst waiting for the appeal hearing. Why is ESA so different to any other sickness or disability benefit?
JSA should be claimed instead - the DWP have certified that they are fit for work haven't they?

What difference would that make? The appeal rate of ESA is the same amount as JSA, so no money would be saved, it would only place a slightly higher level of conditionality upon those appealing. I.e. having to sign-on and possibly attending the work programme more regularly, which most people with any experience know is a complete waste of time.

princessdon

KiKi wrote: »

It's barely a letter. It's a form with patient details at the top (name, address, DOB), which at the bottom says:


"This patient has been claiming ESA. We recently assessed their ability to work using the Limited Capability for Work Assessment. We decided that your patient is capable of work from DATE. This is based on: (TICK BOXES)

* a medical assessment we arranged and your patient attended on DATE
* medical information you provided
* information your patient gave us

This means you do not have to give your patient any more medical statements for for ESA purposes. But you may have to give your patient new medical statements if:

* they decide to appeal against our decision
* their condition gets significantly worse
* they have a new medical condition.

We have sent your patient a summary of the Limited Capability for Work Assessment."


That's it. Hardly accusing GPs of fraud.

KiKi

PMSL :rotfl:

Who needs the daily mail when you get comments like the ones on this thread over a form like that designed to save time and money. Histrionics r us!

wendytiggermad

Horseunderwater wrote: »

Perhaps the OP and her friend should ring a newspaper up and get a story running? In all my years of needing sick notes or as they now call them Fit notes - I have never heard anything so awful.

Flipping right Atos are a law unto themselves, and rubbing thier hands together with the big bonuses they get for bullying sick people. The newspapers could have a right good story if they spoke to us who are being bullied.

miduck

wendytiggermad wrote: »

Flipping right Atos are a law unto themselves, and rubbing thier hands together with the big bonuses they get for bullying sick people. The newspapers could have a right good story if they spoke to us who are being bullied.

The form in question is not sent by ATOS ...

missapril75

miduck wrote: »

The form in question is not sent by ATOS ...

Nor does it threaten or bully

Perhaps ATOS would make a better job of that.

watcher13

The GP would make a professional judgement of whether or not to issue a sick note. The GP's report is taken into account during the appeals process.

GPs are often not aware of the 'rules' surrounding the WCA and the appeals process.

If GPs felt threatened in anyway regarding their professional judgement the avenue would be to their professional body or medical defence organisation.

missapril75

Now that it's been shown that this letter doesn't even come close to doing what several people have alleged it does, across two threads, perhaps people will stop automatically believing such things.

Just because you hear something a few times does not make it true.

deadlightbulb

[This is the OP, just for clarifications sake] I'd like to say, I never actually saw the letter and neither did my friend in question, which is why it looks like we blew it out of proportion. As I said in a previous post, the doctor told my friend about the letter, who then told me and I have good reason to assume the doctor exaggerated like hell to shirk out of her responsibilities.

My friend's nurse and physio let us in on how poorly the doctor is behaving recently regarding her treatment, sick notes and the lot so we're in touch with PALS and such to get this rectified. So in this case, this was definitely the GP and not the DWP who were being unfair, I think the doctor was passing the buck along so they wouldn't look like the bad guy.

I wasn't gonna post anything else about it but I don't like that everyone is assuming we're overreacting, it was more that we'd had the blame misdirected and blown way out of proportion. So yeah, apologies for that!

missapril75

deadlightbulb wrote: »

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I think the doctor was passing the buck along so they wouldn't look like the bad guy.

I wasn't gonna post anything else about it but I don't like that everyone is assuming we're overreacting, it was more that we'd had the blame misdirected and blown way out of proportion. So yeah, apologies for that!

No need to apologise. I think the problem wasn't with your post so much as the number of people in two different threads about the same thing who appear to have a default position of blame the evil empire that is the DWP and sue them.

There are enough problems in the system without putting efforts into issues that don't exist.