DWP tell doctor not to issue patient with anymore sicknotes

I have just read an article where a dead mans daughter found that a manager at the DWP had

written to his doctor behind the patients back telling him not to issue anymore sicknotes unless

he their appealed fit to work decision. This is surely wrong, are they saying the doctor is

wrong or is incompetent and that these people in an office know better? Are doctors being

told this under threat of sanctions, no idea what they could do but why else would a doctor

not follow his own diagnosis?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dwp-told-dying-dads-gp-9529945

My understanding is that only someone more qualified than the GP (consultant/specialist for example) could over-ride the GP, not a manager at the dwp.

Disturbing case, especially in the light of recent revelations that two private companies (Atos and Capita) have earned more than half a billion pounds over four years conducting fit-for-work assessments of disability benefit claimants.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/atos-and-capita-fit-for-work-assessment-earnings-revealed_uk_586247cae4b0f24da6e7c3be

Terrible. This amounts to ordinary people, sick and vulnerable, being persecuted by bureaucracy. And it seems no one will stand up for them.

So discounting that it's the Daily Mirror, which is just the left wing version of the Daily Mail....

The GP in question isn't being told to never give him a note. Indeed if the conditions worsens or changes he's expected to let the DWP know.

All they are doing is saying that there's no need for him to issue repeated notes for the current condition. In other words the DWP know about the condition, they have made their assessment and they don't need more notes from the GP that are no longer relevant to that. Theres no persecution involved.

So discounting that it's the Daily Mirror, which is just the left wing version of the Daily Mail....

 

The GP in question isn't being told to never give him a note. Indeed if the conditions worsens or changes he's expected to let the DWP know.

 

All they are doing is saying that there's no need for him to issue repeated notes for the current condition. In other words the DWP know about the condition, they have made their assessment and they don't need more notes from the GP that are no longer relevant to that. Theres no persecution involved.

Funny, it says the DWP declared him fit for work.

Funny, it says the DWP declared him fit for work.

Why is that funny? From what was said it seems he was capable to do some work.

" The letter was addressed to James’s GP. It said: “We have decided your patient is capable of work from and including January 10, 2016. "

Reads as the DWP have declared the bloke fit to work as I read it. I would have thought the Doctor ought to have replied, That the man concerned is a patient of mine and I declare him unfit to work. Hard to understand how someone without medical training can overide a qualified GP.

Angel1.

So he has a serious lung condition and a hernia.

That doesn't preclude him from being fit to work. It may limit him from certain types of work but that doesn't mean he can expect to choose not to work at all.

People seem to think that if you have an injury or condition that stops you from doing your profession you are entitled to live off the state for the rest of your life. It doesn't work like that. You are expected to undertake work that you can do, the State will support you whilst you look for that work.

The DWP are simply telling the GP - yes we heard you we took on board your comments and we think there is work he can do. I doubt the GP was saying there was no work at all. If he was then the DWP would have had to follow that.

So he has a serious lung condition and a hernia.

 

That doesn't preclude him from being fit to work. It may limit him from certain types of work but that doesn't mean he can expect to choose not to work at all.

 

People seem to think that if you have an injury or condition that stops you from doing your profession you are entitled to live off the state for the rest of your life. It doesn't work like that. You are expected to undertake work that you can do, the State will support you whilst you look for that work.

 

The DWP are simply telling the GP - yes we heard you we took on board your comments and we think there is work he can do. I doubt the GP was saying there was no work at all. If he was then the DWP would have had to follow that.

I know two people who have a "serious lung condition" one male one female. Both are basically house bound due to their condition. Both have to use Oxygen to get into their gardens, let alone further afield. I wonder what kind of work you would allocate for these two unfortunate people.

Angel1

Those two people are not the subject of this discussion though. So that's basically a strawman argument.

Why is that funny? From what was said it seems he was capable to do some work.

Just because some pen pusher at the DWP decided he was fit for work, doesnt mean he was.