BMA to ballot on Work Capability Assessments

All of this is quotes, because I am completely brainfogged at the moment and know I would completely fluff up trying to explain it myself. People one one of the Facebook M.E. groups have been kind enough to explain it for me so that I can blog it, but they wish to remain anonymous. Hopefully I can come back to this when I am a little more alert and draw my own opinions and discussion ... we shall see!

Firstly, we have breaking news:

BREAKING !!! BMA to ballot on Work Capability Assessments !!! #WCA #Atos #DWP

103 HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE OF WIGHT: That conference, in respect of work capability assessments (WCA) as performed
by ATOS Healthcare, believes that the:
(i) inadequate computer based assessments that are used have little regard to the nature or complexity of the needs of long term sick and disabled persons
(ii) WCA should end with immediate effect and be replaced with a rigorous and safe system that does not cause
avoidable harm to some of the weakest and most vulnerable in society.

103a SCOTTISH CONFERENCE OF LMCs: That conference, in respect of work capability assessments (WCA) as performed
by ATOS Healthcare, believes that:
(i) the inadequate computer based assessments that are used have little regard to the nature or complexity of the needs of long term sick and disabled persons
(ii) the WCA should end with immediate effect and be replaced with a rigorous and safe system that does not
cause avoidable harm to some of the weakest and most vulnerable in society.

The GMC will be forced to institute a full investigation and under an obligation to take action to halt the assessments by revoking "Approved Medical Status" to testing centres. The motions were submitted by the Scottish LMC Conference and Hampshire and Isle of Wight LMC. Motions 103 & 103a can be viewed here:

http://www.bma.org.uk/images/lmcconfagenda2012_tcm41-212632.pdf

Which was complete and utter gobbledigook as far as I was concerned. So I asked for clarification. This is where we believe things stand:

"In order for a health professional to work they have to register with their governing body - GMC for doctors, RCN for nurses and HPC for allied health professionals (OTs, physios, etc). On top of that, they can join other organisations and trade unions, so BMA is an organisation which represents doctors, unison is the trade union for nurses and allied professionals.

"As the GMC are the governing body, they set the standards that doctors have to meet in order to continue practising as doctors but they also set standards for the organisations which employ doctors.

"So if the GMC decide that ATOS aren't using doctors in the right way then they can remove their approval which then has repercussions for the doctors working for ATOS and looks bad for the government."

...

"GMC are there to protect ultimately the public...so if the voting is successful and become BMA policy, GMC will have no choice but to investigate not just in terms of how the doctors' operate and good medical practice but ultimately to protect the public against such practices. Without BMA and GMC backing the doctors would be vulnerable practising in ATOS centres..and that may effect things like liability insurance etc and it would be a huge blow/set back for the government and in particular the implementation of PIP."

Voting for something on this matter is taking place on May 23rd. Hopefully I'll understand it by then.

Vindicated!!!!

If you click on the title of this post it'll take you to the following newspaper article. I'm copying it here too, because I have a sneaky suspicion that such honest publishing may well be withdrawn. A quick overview; the government should have claimed back 50 million pounds from ATOS Healthcare because they have failed so badly with the medical assessments. They have not claimed the money back. My personal feelings on this are that it is being recognised how badly ATOS are treating us; that in itself is a result. I would like the government to claim back the money and stop penalising the little people for pennies, but I have no control over that. I would also like the figures in the article to be much more widely published, though I suspect the public will not be interested to hear that we are NOT faking malingerers. Ho hum.

"BUNGLED rulings by the private firm deciding whether benefit claimants are fit to work are costing taxpayers s50million, we can reveal.

The Government have been urged to claw back millions from the contractors after they wrongly assessed thousands on disability benefits.

Atos Healthcare is being paid s100million a year by the Tories to reassess people claiming disability and sickness benefits.

But around 30,000 people appealed against their decisions, with 40 per cent of them successful, which has cost the government around s50million.

The Department for Work and Pensions' contract with Atos allows it to recoup money from the firm for poor medical advice.

But UK employment minister Chris Grayling has admitted not a single penny has been claimed back.

Quizzed by Labour's Tom Greatrex, he said Atos "have met all of their targets for medical advice".

Greatrex, MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, said: "The Toryled Government's failure to provide the taxpayer value for money is disgraceful and the attitude of the minister responsible for this defies belief.

"To suggest Atos has met its targets when it is needlessly costing the taxpayer millions is unacceptable. "It is astonishing that the Government did not recoup a single penny of taxpayer money from Atos, despite its obvious failings.

"At a time when the welfare budget is being slashed by billions, many people will be surprised that the government is not demanding repayment from a multimillionpound international organisation. "The Government is very quick to demand money back from welfare recipients who don't live up to their responsibilities. They should do likewise with Atos."

DWP's contract with Frenchowned Atos allows the government to "apply financial remedies" where the firm has "failed to meet contractual targets".

A dwp spokeswoman said: "If a decision is overturned at appeal, it does not necessarily mean that the original decision was inaccurate.

"Often, customers produce new evidence at their appeal."

Atos said it had nothing to add to the DWP's statement.

We revealed in March how Glasgow GP Margaret McCartney went undercover at an Atos recruitment evening.

She was told: "You are not in a typical caring role. This isn't about diagnosing. We don't call them patients. We call them claimants.""