ongoing esa claim

Hi Everybody,

Ive been receiving esa since feb 2009 and ive now got to go to another medical at the end of this month as my claim is being reviewed etc.

My illness is a range of mental conditions related to a brain injury.

Should the atos doctor be qualified as a pysciatarist or something related to brain injury etc to be able to assess me ?

I passed my first medical in June 2009 or thereabout but am really worried as ive heard things have changed.

Any help or advice much appreciated and also what is the significance of how you travel to the medical?

Hi Davuck

I understand, from information from Medical Services, that claimants are matched with available doctors with the most appropriate knowledge of their condition. That doesn’t mean that you will see a doctor with any knowledge of your condition, only if one's available. They are generally just trained to assess your functional ability in relation to the Work Capacity Assessment.

To answer your second question, ATOS doctors, together with the software they use to produce medical reports, make very crude assumptions about your ability from the way you travel to the medical centre.

For physical disabilities they may assume that you had no problem walking from the bus stop and enter that information into the computer, without actually asking if you had difficulty or needed to stop for rests. Such claimants would be advised to tell the doctor of any difficulties without being asked.

For mental health, sitting on a bus or train is considered a form of ‘social contact’ by ATOS (not true if you don’t speak to anyone on the bus) and somebody with social phobia may be considered to be able to cope with social situations. It can also be used against you for other descriptors on the medical report in ways you would not even imagine!

Also, attending the medical on your own is perceived by ATOS as demonstrating a level of confidence and you could lose points for coping with change or coping with social situations.

Good luck

Derek

You can have a lend of my witches broom, wonder what their computer will make of that!

You can have a lend of my witches broom, wonder what their computer will make of that!

.... Doktor-on-a-stick ....

Judy wrote:

You can have a lend of my witches broom, wonder what their computer will make of that!

It would make a very interesting medical report.