Recently I have come across several articles about GP's in South Wales particularly, being advised to stop writing letters supporting benefit appeals.
GP's in south east Wales are being advised not to write letters for patients who are appealing benefit decisions.The Bro Taf local medical committee (LMC) sent a letter out to the GPs in its area instructing them to concentrate on seeing ill patients instead.. However, when the implications of this statement are closely looked at, it suggests that the health authority concerned is supporting the government and ATOS, after all since the health authority managers responsible for the letter would not see the GP's patients, how do they know if they are indeed ill or not ? But they are saying that the patients are not ill.
It is not possible for a sick or disabled person now to make any application for sickness benefits without a certificate and probably more evidence from their GP, and certainly the medical evidence is needed for appeals against ATOS decisions that a sick person is fit for work. Their GP is going to be the first person a claimant will approach to get the required documentation, and in effect this policy stops them from making a claim or appealing against a decision from ATOS that they are fit for work. If the GP won't help, then there is nowhere to get the evidence from...which is of course what the government want.
Meanwhile, the DWP state that 'all decisions about benefits eligibility were taken after "thorough assessment and after careful consideration of all the available evidence"......so how come in that case, so many have died and are dying each week as a result of being forced to seek and accept work ?..Even my own local job centre advisers tell me that they have themselves signed terminally ill people as being declared fit for work and these people have to comply with the Job Seekers allowance rules that they look for work and apply for jobs.
The DWP go on to say that "GPs have been clear that they do not want to be responsible for making decisions on people's benefit entitlement, which is why we have processes in place to request the appropriate information from GPs to enable us to make those decisions."....
The outcome of this is that the DWP write to the GP for the required evidence using ATOS to do so...The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) says that if further medical evidence is required for a benefits application, it will be requested by a healthcare professional working for Atos Healthcare.....who of course have already decided that benefits will not be granted and that an appeal will not be successful, the patient is fit to work and must claim JSA.
The Bro Taf local medical committee (LMC)has given doctors a draft letter for them to give to patients needing medical evidence for benefit claims . It says"GPs need to have a consistent approach to this issue and colleagues who do this work make it more difficult for others to resist and it spreads the belief with patients and local authorities that GPs are happy to take on this non contracted and unfunded work. This is saying that if one doctor supports a patient then others will find it hard not to and suggesting that if a doctor does support patients then they are betraying their colleagues and making things difficult for them, so this policy needs to be a common one for doctors in the area....in other words they need to be all in it together.
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