Benefits Guide for GPs'

Danday

Tommo1980 wrote: »

I'm sure GPs have more important things to read than DWP guidance notes.

That;s probably true!

But what does worry me is that they must find the time as when I went to see him when claiming ESA just before my 65th birthday, he told me that he could no longer issue anymore sicknotes as the DWP had instructed him in a guide book/by letter not to do so as I had been assessed as being fully capable of work.

Nannytone

Danday wrote: »

Yes I have the same situation - all are long standing and likely to kill me in time. Yet I have to go cap in hand every time to my GP in the hope that he can help me out with evidence.- seems that is now to be outlawed according to the guide.
I very rarely go to see the various consultants only because there is nothing that they can do other than arrange for more medication. Letters? I've never had one from anybody other than telling me when & where to go as an outpatient.
Personally I have let things drift from seeing anybody - it became too much to cope with - my life at the time was an endless roundabout of hospital visits which I got fed up with.

then you need to tell the hospital that you would like a copy of all correspondence I sent to your GP. I also have a condition that cannot improve but I attend my check ups at the hospital in order to procure my medical evidence needed for benefit. the difference is I don't see it as going cap in hand and instead I see it as me being proactive and making sure that I have the information necessar I am asking the state to provide me with the living so it doesn't seem unfair that I should establish my need for that support

Danday

Nannytone wrote: »

then you need to tell the hospital that you would like a copy of all correspondence I sent to your GP. I also have a condition that cannot improve but I attend my check ups at the hospital in order to procure my medical evidence needed for benefit. the difference is I don't see it as going cap in hand and instead I see it as me being proactive and making sure that I have the information necessar I am asking the state to provide me with the living so it doesn't seem unfair that I should establish my need for that support

Time has passed me by, I have given up on the endless cycle of a 50 min wait for a 5 min chat with the consultant only to be told that nothing has changed, you are now experiencing the deterioration we discussed last time.
I know I am deteriorating I don't need him to tell me that.
Given the state that the NHS is in you actually go to these out patient appointment primarily to obtain an up dated letter so that you can send it to the DWP as evidence?
And you suggest that you are being proactive.
You do realise that you may well be wasting valuable time that could be used by someone else who is desperately ill? I am amazed at what you have written. You genuinely believe that what you are doing is acceptable.

tomtom256

Danday wrote: »

Time has passed me by, I have given up on the endless cycle of a 50 min wait for a 5 min chat with the consultant only to be told that nothing has changed, you are now experiencing the deterioration we discussed last time.
I know I am deteriorating I don't need him to tell me that.
Given the state that the NHS is in you actually go to these out patient appointment primarily to obtain an up dated letter so that you can send it to the DWP as evidence?
And you suggest that you are being proactive.
You do realise that you may well be wasting valuable time that could be used by someone else who is desperately ill? I am amazed at what you have written. You genuinely believe that what you are doing is acceptable.

Time to grow up and smell the coffee.

If you do not have regular check ups to obtain and keep the evidence needed for PIP/DLA/ESA etc then you may as well not bother claiming as it will be refused.

Any appointment people attend will not affect "desperately Ill people" as they would been seen as a priority!

Danday

tomtom256 wrote: »

Time to grow up and smell the coffee.

If you do not have regular check ups to obtain and keep the evidence needed for PIP/DLA/ESA etc then you may as well not bother claiming as it will be refused.

Any appointment people attend will not affect "desperately Ill people" as they would been seen as a priority!

Regular check ups no longer happen they stopped a few years back. As you should know, if you cancel an outpatient appointment more than twice you are automatically discharged back to your GP. If you don't turn without prior warning there is no second chance - you are discharged as before. Being discharged back to the GP is just that - it all goes quiet on the Western Front. So inevitably you become buried in the paperwork!
Had this with the Diabetes system. Ended up with two people trying to take charge, the hospital unit and the diabetic nurse at the surgery. I gave up with the hospital and just didn't bother going, preferring to see the nurse as had been the usual course of events. Unfortunately the nurse left the surgery assuming that I was still under the hospital. Now I am under no one and it's been that way for well over a year.
Same with mental health, no one is taking ownership of me.
Of course I get my regular meds every month so that is not a problem but at the moment I do actually believe that for the past couple of years and more everybody thinks someone else is looking after me and nobody actually checks.

I doubt anybody can actually fake what my problems are, legs don't regrow, spines aren't transplanted etc and the brain doesn't regenerate back to normality.
My benefit claims are based on the truth - if the DWP don't want to believe me I then have to go to the GP for him to spell it out. You don't need to spend half your life going from one hospital visit to another.
I don't accept that, an appointment is an appointment. If you really don't need to have it except to use it to get evidence then you are wasting the consultants time. Someone else could have made use of that appointment instead.

tomtom256

Danday wrote: »

Regular check ups no longer happen they stopped a few years back. As you should know, if you cancel an outpatient appointment more than twice you are automatically discharged back to your GP. If you don't turn without prior warning there is no second chance - you are discharged as before. Being discharged back to the GP is just that - it all goes quiet on the Western Front. So inevitably you become buried in the paperwork!
Had this with the Diabetes system. Ended up with two people trying to take charge, the hospital unit and the diabetic nurse at the surgery. I gave up with the hospital and just didn't bother going, preferring to see the nurse as had been the usual course of events. Unfortunately the nurse left the surgery assuming that I was still under the hospital. Now I am under no one and it's been that way for well over a year.
Same with mental health, no one is taking ownership of me.
Of course I get my regular meds every month so that is not a problem but at the moment I do actually believe that for the past couple of years and more everybody thinks someone else is looking after me and nobody actually checks.

I doubt anybody can actually fake what my problems are, legs don't regrow, spines aren't transplanted etc and the brain doesn't regenerate back to normality.
My benefit claims are based on the truth - if the DWP don't want to believe me I then have to go to the GP for him to spell it out. You don't need to spend half your life going from one hospital visit to another.
I don't accept that, an appointment is an appointment. If you really don't need to have it except to use it to get evidence then you are wasting the consultants time. Someone else could have made use of that appointment instead.

Whilst you may not be able to fake the problem, some people do fake how that problem affects them and lie to their GP in order to claim benefits.

Not all people do this and it is a minority, but this is one of the reasons why the DWP do not rely on GP evidence alone, as the GP tends to see a patient for 10 mins once in a blue moon and they have to take what the patient states as gospel as they have no other way to prove/disprove this.

A report from a proper specialised consultant will provide the exact evidence required.

We can go round in circles if you like, but that's how the system works.

Danday

tomtom256 wrote: »

Whilst you may not be able to fake the problem, some people do fake how that problem affects them and lie to their GP in order to claim benefits.

Not all people do this and it is a minority, but this is one of the reasons why the DWP do not rely on GP evidence alone, as the GP tends to see a patient for 10 mins once in a blue moon and they have to take what the patient states as gospel as they have no other way to prove/disprove this.

A report from a proper specialised consultant will provide the exact evidence required.

We can go round in circles if you like, but that's how the system works.

So be it, but the 'circle' has bypassed me a long time ago. In my claims during re-assessment I tell the truth about all of my difficulties. Some are never believed (anything to do with mental health matters) so then I am left having to rely purely on the physical issues. ATOS/CAPITA can write what they want, that doesn't bother me, but if they do want to disbelieve the part of my claim relating to physical descriptors then they are welcome to hear it at a Tribunal or accept the word from my GP who is the only 'medical' contact I see and have seen for many years. It's worked in the past and presumably will continue to work in the future. I don't need to waste the consultant's time in the manner that has been described. It is wrong and immoral.
At the end of the day I am happy just as long as I get the minimum number of points that I believe that I am entitled to, not caring how they are awarded.

Nannytone

I presume you mean I am wasting my consultants time.. ophthalmologist are very rarely required to save lives if ever I have a condition that they are still learning about and seeing me on a yearly basis and observing what is happening in my case is very valuable information to them. but I shouldn't go because it's all about me isn't it I shouldn't worry about anyone else/B]

Danday

Nannytone wrote: »

I presume you mean I am wasting my consultants time.. ophthalmologist are very rarely required to save lives if ever I have a condition that they are still learning about and seeing me on a yearly basis and observing what is happening in my case is very valuable information to them. but I shouldn't go because it's all about me isn't it I shouldn't worry about anyone else/B]

Precisely, you have no real need to go. Learning? What I can tell you that my GP when I was first diagnosed with one issue he had never seen a patient in real life with what was wrong with me. I thought great I'm a guinea pig. That put me off years ago from going. He actually had to admit that he needed to read up on the disease.
That really did give me a great deal amount of comfort.
So no, I don't see the point in seeing anybody that is either going to repeat what they said a year previous or doesn't know very much about why I am like I am.

Tommo1980

You really do come out with some tripe Andy. You always seem to be looking at logic in the rear view mirror. That's not to say your threads can't provide some light relief at times, but do you really need to spout your !!!!! on every thread on the board (your input on CVs for example)? It becomes off putting to the genuine membership.