Tapes provided by Atos at Face to Face

Just to reinforce what Gordon says about legal cases. There would be no problems as long as the legal case is over. Legal cases still with a court would not be as they remain Sub Judice until the case is concluded.

However, members posting about such cases must provide a link so that it can be checked out by a moderator for legal reasons before appearing on the forum.

Puscatsmum, could you please provide a link for the legal precedent in respect of those with a neurological disease having to be examined by a doctor.

To the best of my knowledge there is no legal precedent in English Law, just a a requirement that the Government’s contract with Atos Healthcare requires that doctors are used to assess claimants with conditions that are likely to have complex central nervous system examination findings.

Many thanks.

Jim

I think I might have causes confusion when I referred to a 'case'. I'm afraid that this was sloppy tyerminology on my behalf . All I am aware of is the contractual clause to which Jim referred.

Look on www.rightsnet.org to see the info I mentioned. It is not really a site for the general public but one can glean info from this site that pertains to criteria discussed on this site. Case studies you can obtain from the Library and other websites if needed as well as the subscription journals for legal matters - again sometimes found in certain libraries.

I found this if it helps: In a Written Answer on 14 November 2011, Lord Freud (Minister for Welfare Reform at the Department for Work and Pensions), replied:

The Government’s contract with Atos Healthcare requires that doctors are used to assess claimants with conditions that are likely to have complex central nervous system examination findings.

The majority of claimants with CFS/ME do not exhibit such signs and therefore CFS/ME is not on the list of conditions that are required to be assessed by a doctor. However, if a claimant with CFS/ME has neurological signs, they will be passed to a healthcare professional with the requisite expertise.

I realised that I had read this somewhere and I have ME and severe neuropathy (autonomic and peripheral).

pusscatsmum wrote:

Look on www.rightsnet.org to see the info I mentioned. It is not really a site for the general public but one can glean info from this site that pertains to criteria discussed on this site. Case studies you can obtain from the Library and other websites if needed as well as the subscription journals for legal matters - again sometimes found in certain libraries.

There's a post on RightsNet which is relevant to this point about a possible requirement for a doctor to examine those with "complex" neurological problems. This is from someone working as a "Social Policy Coordinator" with the CAB.

It is certainly my understanding that this is the practice - and that if such a case is by mistake listed for a member of one of the other professions it will have to be rescheduled. I went to a presentation on the LIMA system and there is a compulsory question on it which stops things in their tracks if this happens.

Rights Net 11 April 2012