FYI: Scotland’s GPs Call for an End to ATOS Assessments.
Bright Green.
Posted on March 23, 2012.
Scotland’s GP’s have called for to an end to the Government’s
controversial, computer-based ‘Work Capability Assessments’ carried out
by French IT multinational Atos Origin for the DWP with “immediate effect”:
The following motion was passed at the Scottish Local Medical Committee
Conference this week:
60. That this 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
[END Motion]
The Scottish-based disability rights and advocacy group Black Triangle
was instrumental in getting this motion tabled at the SLMC conference in
Clydebank.
Dr. Stephen Carty, who works as a GP in the Leith area of Edinburgh and
who is an active member of the campaign, said:
“I welcome the support of the Scottish LMC conference on this matter.
This sends a ray of hope to some of the weakest and most vulnerable in
society. It also sends a clear message to other representative bodies,
including the General Medical Council (GMC), of the significant concerns
shared by many GPs across the country.”
He said that “In my opinion, the current contractual arrangements
between the DWP and General Practice are unsustainable. The WCA, as
performed by ATOS, is not an effective or safe method of determining
“fitness to work”, and this must be addressed.”
He continued: “All doctors are duty-bound by the GMC to report any
system or process that may be harmful to patients. The WCA is a harmful
process. Scottish GPs have spoken: the GMC cannot remain silent on this
matter any longer.”
John McArdle, a founding member of Black Triangle said:
“The scandal of these assessments has gone on far too long. As a
grassroots disabled people’s organisation, we are over the moon that
Scotland’s GPs have spoken out so clearly and unequivocally in their
condemnation. Our GPs recognise the severe and avoidable damage that is
being done to sick and disabled people through this brutal, draconian
and profoundly unjust testing regime as they see it every single day. It
must be halted now – “with immediate effect” – before any further harm
results and whilst the GMC launches a thorough investigation. They can
no longer remain silent. They must act.”
END
The above article can be found at
http://brightgreenscotland.org/index.php/2012/03/scotlands-gps-call-for-an-end-to-atos-assessments/
or
http://preview.tinyurl.com/79xklsl
Links in article:
Scottish Local Medical Committee Conference Agenda.
http://www.bma.org.uk/images/slmc2011agenda_tcm41-212139.pdf
or
http://preview.tinyurl.com/82rj8aw
Black Triangle Campaign.
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/
Chris Salter
Post-Polio News Service
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