Many Thanks for the warm welcomes.
More on ATOS – Nobody should be under any illusion that ATOS are contracted by the UK Government for any other reason than to reduce benefit expenditure. My GP, one of the good guys, attended a local conference, organised by ATOS, at which they were ‘signing up’ doctors to carry out medicals on their (ATOS’s) behalf. It was made perfectly clear that the doctor’s main focus of these medicals was to reduce, or preferably eliminate altogether, benefit payments to claimants. My GP was disgusted and left the conference, wanting no part of it. Clearly, some doctors are more than happy to collect their 30 pieces of silver from ATOS.
I would be interested to know if patients that have experienced one of these pathetic medicals actually got in to see the examiner (box-ticker!) at the time their appointment was arranged. My appointment was over 1 hour later than it should have been and this seems to be a common problem for other patients, whatever their illness, from various parts of the UK.
Without wishing to appear paranoid! There was one of those 'dark domes', that frequently conceal CCTV cameras, positioned on the wall of the ATOS medical centre open-plan waiting area. This dome seemed ill-positioned as a general security measure, having very limited coverage of other adjacent areas (corridors etc). Given the lengthy waiting times of myself and the other patients present it did raise the question of whether patients were being observed prior to the actual medical. As I say, I do not wish to appear paranoid but, given ATOS’s clear mandate to reduce the numbers claiming benefits, I treat everything that they do and say with suspicion.
The medical itself –The medic wanders into the waiting area and calls your name and you then follow them to the 'examination room'. In my case, the door was wedged open and the examiner made no attempt to close it. I suspect that this was intentional and merely to test my 'mobility/flexibility'. I just forced the door open a little more and kicked the wedge out of the way and closed the door. Given the close proximity of the examination room to the waiting area, it would have been easy for others waiting to overhear any conversation between myself and the examiner.
I started by asking the examiner if she had any specialist knowledge of ME. Her response was,
“ I am experienced in a wide variety of illnesses”. Mmm...not very encouraging. The examiner asks a variety of questions based on the forms that you have previously completed and inputs your responses directly into their computer. The examiner clearly tried to 'steer' my responses to suit what she wanted and on several occasions I had to be very pushy to ensure that I got my message across, for example...
EXAMINER – “Can you raise your hands above your head?”
ME - “Yes, I can raise my hands above my head, but only a couple of times”.
EXAMINER – “Yes, but you can do it”.
ME - “Yes, as I have already explained, I can do it, but only a couple of times, and I expect this fact to be included in your report”. (I’m guessing that there is space on the examiner’s screen to include additional comments.)
I requested a copy of the report but was informed that, as the Department of Works & Pensions (DWP) were paying for the examination, this was not permitted.
As the patient, you have no access to what is entered on the computer by the examiner. In my opinion, a copy of the medical report should be printed and signed by the patient to ensure that it correctly records the examination process and all questions and responses. You are awarded points based upon your answers to the questions and a perfunctory physical examination, the number of points will form the basis for entitlement to benefits and at what level. The examination results are forwarded electronically to the DWP where a ‘decision maker’ gives your claim for benefit the ‘thumbs up’, or down! There are more details on this points system on the Internet and I will find the link and post it here when I can.
Also, pinned to the wall of the waiting area was a notice that, basically, forbids the discussion of any of the ATOS examination processes/procedures with a third party. I can’t recall the exact wording but it was such that it was made to appear as a legal warning. I investigated this further and discovered that this sign, and therefore ATOS, actually has no legal power to ‘gag’ patients, as it was clearly intended to do.
If I recall anything else I’ll post again.
Kindest Regards -
G1
