Something to beware of

Hi, This is for information. On my PIP review form I had put the name of the doctor I see and who knows my conditions / effect, as someone who could be contacted for further information. When I applied last time IAS didn't contact anyone and I assumed it would be the same this time. I had already sent them all consultant letters, some GP letters I had from a year ago and assessment reports done by independant Doctors for my Ill health pensions. However after I'd had my PIP assessment I noticed some blank forms had been uploaded to my medical records (I have full access) these were from IAS asking for a GP factual report. This had been requested by IAS a few weeks earlier. With less face to face assessments taking place it is maybe something IAS are going to do more regularly now. It asks questions relating to PIP descriptors and gives doctors advice on filling in. Along with asking how a patient walks, bends and gets up and down off a chair, along with the ROM they have. For mental health it asks for details such as self harm, self neglect, detailed mental state findings. It says they do not need an appointment with the patient to fill it in. They get £33.50 to fill it in. It asks for observations not opinions. I noticed these forms had been forwarded to EMR by my GP surgery. On contacting them I discovered that this was electronic medical records outsourced to a private company - Medi2data - as my GP surgery have without informing patients, recently decided to outsource information requests for PIP amongst other things which they deem private work ie not part of the GP contract. The 'factual report' provided by Medidata is scant to say the least, not accurate and gives the impression I am not known to the GP surgery. It doesn't provided information on how I am affected even though this is contained in my medical record. It has had no input from any GP let alone the one I gave consent to provided information. It was also sent back after my assessment report from IAS was sent to DWP so it hasn't formed part of the assessment I had, it remains to be seen if DWP will take notice of it when giving their decision and down grade what the assessor opinion even further. So beware if your GP surgery has started to operate in this way and outsource this work. You most likely will not be informed a request from IAS has been received or what has been sent back, especially if you don't have access to your medical records. Best wishes to everyone

Ooh ooh ooh Very naughty. many thanks Pixiegirl. I might just ask my GPs as I am brewing doing my own claim now daughter's review is sorted -[for all of 18 months..sigh]

Hi,
Unless I`ve completely misunderstood / missed something (and if I have, I apologise)......
Unless you opt out, your medical records are shared with a 3rd party and this has been the case for a few years now (2018 I believe).
The information shared is "non-confidential" and is used for planning & research only. It`s not shared with insurance companies (yet ).
Andy

Hi Andy
Sorry if I have confused it wasn't the data I was warning about, It was that IAS are potentially going to be asking GP's for medical evidence more frequently (without a claimant necessarily knowing this has been done) and how requests sent by IAS for medical evidence are dealt with by a GP surgery. My GP's used to provide supporting evidence themselves for PIP, this has recently been outsourced to a private firm who presumably have access to my medical records - but either they don't have full access or they couldn't be bothered to do a full report fit for purpose as the report provided didn't contained anything useful and had a lot of missing information, which I can see Dwp using to their advantage.

Hi Pixigirl,
Thank you, I understand now
Andy

Was it this in disguise?

National data opt-out
The national data opt-out is a service that allows patients to opt out of their confidential patient information being used for research and planning.