** 2nd esa medical in less than 12 months**

[Pretty-Pumpkin67]

First off i would like to say im so glad i found this site ,its very nice to know there are others going through what myself and my husband are going through right now...

 

OK where do i start??...perhaps the beginning would be a good idea.OK here we go in january 2004 my husband was diagnosed with having dilated cardiomypathy,among his other problems ie back pain and knee replacement needed ,but is too young to have knee done ????he gained a lot of weight and weighed in at 34 stone,to cut a long story short he was told that if he didnt loose weight he would put a high risk on his heart and it would be FATEL...he was given meds to help him loose but they just made him sick and unwell,in november of the same year his gp suggested a gastric bypass,june 4th 2005 he underwent a long 7 hour operation and within 12 months had lost 20 stone ....anyway he desided to give work a try and started work in april 2006,still suffering with back and knee but he was happy very happy to be back at work....going to cut this short again in november 2008 he started getting ill again suffering badly with gout in his feet and legs,took a month off work hoping that it would clear that wasnt the case even with medication he still worsened and his gp said he needed alongterm sick note,we claimed ESA and were advised a medical would be needed that was finehe replied ,went for ATOS medicaal (joke that was).The mediacl took 4 months to come through ,i attended the medical with him as he was in pain and struggled to walk with the pain and gout he had at the time...we were in the medical room for 26 mins ,the doctor (hahaha)was very unfriendly and seemed to be in a rush to get us out ,she wasnt really interested in my husbands health on that day just that he had returned to work and became ill again...anyway he failed the medical took 5 weeks for the desission to come through to him...we appealed that took another 3 months to come through ..we went to the tribuneral in february this year ...the doctor and judge were astonished as to why he was there ..and we WON the appeal and were awarded 9 months backpay at a rate of £89.40(we were getting £64 while appeal was going through)....anyway in may this year we recieved another letter from ATOS stating that the DWP had requested another medical and we had to fill in a form and send it back to them by june 7th,my husband is now on MST & ORAMORPH for pain relief and he gets exhausted even walking from the bedroom to the bathroom,i put all this information on the form for ATOS and requested a home visit if it was desided he needed to attend a mediacl again.....on thursday this week we recieved another letter from ATOS who have now informed us DWP require my husband to have another medical and that he as to ring within 2 days of recieveing the letter,i rang straight away and told them he was in no fit state to travel(no longer able to drive due to dizzy spells & blackouts)the journey would mean us taking 3 buses from home to where the medical was going to be performed ,and i requested a HOME VISIT ,was informed that i would need to get a note from the doctor stating that husband couldnt use public transport due to mobility ,breathlessness and pain......all that as been arranged but then saturday morning we got an appointment through the door for july 1st at 09.40am......obviously the person i spoke to on the phone had not passed on my phonecall and now we have to ring again to say we have a fax been sent over from husbands gp requesting home visit....its all very stressfull for husband and for me to be fare .....i know you are all thinking oh hell she writing a book...but i just think the system stinks to be fare ,,,,,and cannot understand why 2 medicals are needed in less than 12 months ...is anybody else going or gone through this sad state of affair ..if so id love to hear the outcome of the second medical.

 

 

 

yours Lesley(pretty-pumpkin67.xxxx.

[ANDYANDFLO]

Hi Lesley,

 

Having been through an ATOS medical and failing I am now waiting for my Tribunal date. As to why your husband should need another in such a short space of time is anybody's guess!! Maybe they just don't believe the Tribunal and want another 'go' at him!!!

 

Anyhow there is no doubt that there will be more 'members' of our club that can help you and will be along very shortly.

 

What I can say is that I have been on a minimum of 75mgs of MST every 12 hours but more realistically 100 mgs (200mgs per day 24 hours) for the past 2 years AND take Oramorph (20mgs every 4/6 hours)!!!!!

 

And they still decided that I am fully fit for employment - I wish!!!!!

[Pretty-Pumpkin67]

Thankyou for your reply andyandflo.....your on the same as my husband then....and hes due for an increse on tuesday this week(trying to find what they call his comfort zone)is there any such thing ?????.

 

VERY good luck with your appeal/tribuneral ...

[ANDYANDFLO]

Thankyou for your reply andyandflo.....your on the same as my husband then....and hes due for an increse on tuesday this week(trying to find what they call his comfort zone)is there any such thing ?????.

 

VERY good luck with your appeal/tribuneral ...

 

Hi, well I wouldn't call it a comfort zone - it's more or less the level where the pain subsides yet he is still able to have a life of sorts. Everybody has two levels, 1. the balance as above, and 2. the max that he can cope with.

 

When I went to the pain clinic they 'authorised' the use of Morphine up to a level that I could cope with. This I find to be around 160mgs every 12 hours, anymore than that I have to be taken into A&E for it to be 'topped' up intravenously. That is the most wonderful feeling in the world!!! Mind you I have been told that in taking this drug, if ever I come off it or reduce it I will have to be prescribed Methadone!!!!!! Me a 61 year old junkie!!!!!

 

And thanks for the support regarding my forthcoming appeal. To be honest I don't see that I will have much of a chance of winning it, as being a little like my wife, I don't go to the GP often enough to build up a good history and just see my Consultants when I have to. In reallity, I will say and do almost anything to get out of the surgery as fast as I can. As long as I have my drugs that help me cope, then that is the most that they can do for me, other than surgery which I am fighting against. Further, and this is posted elsewhere on this site, I have for the past 6 years or so 'ducked' so far off the radar, that one of my illnesses has seemingly been forgotten about - AND that was a relief, but now realise that I have not done myself any favours.

Edited June 20, 2010 by ANDYANDFLO

[Pretty-Pumpkin67]

Oh yes i also forgot to mention that when we requested the medical forms that ATOS had sent the dwp for the desission maker to look at ....she had even got my husbands first name surname wrong ????confidentuality right out of the window...

[ErikaPNP]

Has your husband been placed in the work related activity group? If so, this medical will be a different medical. Initially there is the LCW medical (Limited capability for work). Once someone has been placed in the work related activity group, they have to attend another medical called the WFHRA (Work focused health related assessment).

 

If in the support group, he is not expected to take part in the WFHRA.

[Pretty-Pumpkin67]

HIya Erika,

yes my husband is in the work related activity group....could you explain what the difference with this second medical is ...and is he going to have to attend these medicals every 12 months or so??

[loan_ranger]

HIya Erika,

yes my husband is in the work related activity group....could you explain what the difference with this second medical is ...and is he going to have to attend these medicals every 12 months or so??

Here's some fact-sheets which explain it all:

Employment and support allowance overview - Disability Alliance Factsheet F31

Employment and support allowance - the medical tests - Disability Alliance Factsheet F32

Factsheet F33 - employment and support allowance activities,descriptors and points (pdf format)

[ErikaPNP]

The purpose of the LCW is to determine if a customer is considered as having limited capability for work and if so, whether they should be placed in the WRA group or the support group.

 

The purpose of the WFHRA is to look at customer perceptions

towards work and any barriers to work, to look at the extent to which a customers capability may be improved by taking steps to assist the condition. It should assess the difficulties which the person is likely to have owing to their condition in securing and maintaining employment and how this might be able to be managed or alleviated. It also used as a tool for Personal Advisers.

[happyhamr]

Hello, Pretty-pumpkin67,hope you and your husband are doing OK.

 

I am sure you will get "Loads" of help,advice and support from the

good folk on this forum.

 

just one point i would like to "clarify is (WRA group),is this "Pathways to work" the actual interviews you have to attend?

 

also , these" personal advisers" are they the actual people who interview you, if you are put in the (WRA group),and then once interviewed by them

this is "known" has having a work focused interview(WFI)

 

sorry,people especially erika, just want to know if this is correct?

I believe this to be so, but still have "worries",and "concearns"

 

goodnight everybody,sleepwell prettypumpkin67.

"not usually up this late"

happyhamr:)

[Pretty-Pumpkin67]

UPDATE...following my telephone conversation with ATOS medical group on thursday 17/06/2010,,requesting a home visit i was advised to get a home visit my husband would need to have a fax sent over from his gp,made appointment for fri 18/06 doctor agreed to send a fax for him to request home visit...saturday 19/06 he recieved yet another letter dated 17/06 with an appointment for 01/07....rang ATOS today 21/06...spoke to a very very arrogant man who said he needed to speak to my husband for data protection i guess this is understandable but they spoke to me fine on thursday without having to speak to my hubby first...anyway what really got my goat was i had to wake my husband who hadnt had much sleep all night due to not been able to get comfortable..waking husband isnt a good idea to be fare he always wakes in a baddish mood...so atos got a little verbal off him.....oooppppsssss....he was then told if he didnt attend the assessment his money would STOP....wasnt happy with this mand attitude so i rang ESA who were very compassonate towards what we had just experienced and advised that i made a complaints ,they gave me the number abd im going to ring them now to make a complaint ..esa have also added our conversation to my husbands claim and that we are making a complaint....will let you know what happens when iv ranhATOS COMPAINTS LINE.

 

 

Lesley

[twinkletoes66]

Lesley its probably too late now but in future any correspondence you have with Atos (complaints) try to do it in email, then you have proof of everything thats said. Theyre very "forgetful" these people and records of people ringing sometimes get "lost"

[Pretty-Pumpkin67]

Hi again,

 

I eventually got through to ATOS COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT at 13 55...spoke to a lady who deals with CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS ,she was very very helpful(first time for everything lol?).....she said she would send out a complaints form i replied no good we have until 1st of july to get this situation resolved...she said ok fare enough i will email (gave her my addy)get your husband to submit his complaint by email this will get the ball rolling.call ended..within 4 minutes of the call ending i recieved the email:D.....didnt expect it to be fare although she was i stated very very helpful....husband as now subbmitted his complaint and we have also emailed our local MP ,to see whether we can get any advise / help etc from them...not holding my breath though as takes our MPS weeks to answer email(tried calling him but his voicemail box is full and can accept nomore messages?......Rang doctors surgery fax was sent earlier today ...so lets see what happens next.....in advance thankyou to all who have replied and who may reply after this post...you have been more than helpfull...and my stress levels have calmed down just a little

[happyhamr]

hellow,prettypumpkin67,

hopefully you will get this "sorted"out and your husband gets a home visit.It can be like getting "blood out of a stone",

when it comes to atos:rolleyes:

 

MANY people who are genuinely sick and ill have not got the strenght /effort to fight atos and i fear for them.

The ones who do keep on "battling",just have to do just that BATTLE.

 

I also fear if you are not sick/ill now,heaven help you when you DO:(

 

Did your husband attend these,Pathways to work interview(s),or was he to ill , only i had to attend(even before actual medical)and if i did not "GO"

was informed my benefit would cease:eek:

 

good wishes to you and your husband, happyhamr:)

[Pretty-Pumpkin67]

hiya happyhamr,...my husband did attend 4 of the pathway to work interviews at our local jsp...but on his last visit he blackout and was rushed into hospital by his personnell advisor and was told he did not have to attend any further interviews.

 

thankyou for all your good wishes .

 

Llesley

[Pretty-Pumpkin67]

UPDATE...Today we recieved a letter from ATOS medical services complaints department ,this letter confirmed our complaint and the date we made the complaint,they assure us it is being fully investigated and we should recieve a reply within a 4 week period.

 

RESULT... I rang ATOS medical services after recieving the letter from complaints ...yes they have recieved the fax from my husbands gp confirming a request for a home visit....was advised if we had not heard by tuesday 29/06/2010 husband should ring to ask whether a dessission had been made concerning a home visit for his ESA medical assessment ,if no dessission had been made he should cancel the appointment he had recieved until dessission was made....end call.

 

RESULT *2... At 14.28 the home phone rang ,lady asking to speak to my husband ,he was asleep so i told her he could not take the call as he was sleeping,i asked who it was she said ----- ----- from ATOS medical services i said ok ,she then asked who i was told her wife ,she then said could i please pass a message on for your husband ,i said yes ,she then said husband as been granted a home visit and you will be hearing from us within the next few weeks .

 

 

GOOD NEWS ...?????....or maybe our complaint is already under investigation and thats why hes been granted a home visit ....who knows .

 

but at least my husband hasnt got to tend to the 18 miles jounrney now and end up suffering for god knows how long with pain ..and getting stressed.

 

I would like to thankyou for help..advise and replies to my original post.

 

Mant thanks.xxxxx.

[loan_ranger]

The home medical is good news indeed. Be warned that these medicals cannot be trusted to report truthfully the illness and disabilities.

I will also be trying for a home medical so that I can secretly record it on web-cam and microphone because their reports never seem to bear any relation to what was said and happened during the examination.

[furnitman2003]

My sister-in-law, had an Atos Home visit, the so called HCP came down by train from London, (she lives S.East Coast), asked her 5 questions and left, it will be interesting to see what the verdict is.

Alan

[Pretty-Pumpkin67]

hiya ,the ATOS medicals are indeed rubbish,my husband went for one less than 12 months ago ,and yes you are right they dont listern to you or are they concerned about your illness as it stands on that particular day at all.It is a good result that we have been allowed a home visit ,it really as took an emence amount of pressure of my husband to be honest,im just hoping that we dont have the same examiner as his first medical...she didnt even get his name right in his report ,that along with saying he had good mobility yet he uses metal crutches to walk ,she also said he had no heart problem ,how they can tell that just through putting a stethoscope on his chest i dont know(he suffers from dilated cardiomypathy)medical evidence was sent to ESA,also my husband according to her had ni visable scaring to his body,come on hes got a 17inch scare where he had gastric bypass surgery (she should have spotted that when listerning to his heart)....but never mind they are all very proffessional medical examiners who are highly skilled in disability issues:lol: