How ATOS could be put in charge of GP ‘sick notes’ So the same GPs who are to be entrusted with the £80bn NHS budget from April 2013 may be stripped of their role in telling people whether they are too sick to work or not: A new body could decide whether people are fit to work, according to drafts of the Government’s Independent Review into Sickness Absence. Employers would be able to ask the assessment panel, rather than GPs, to make independent decisions. … It is likely to say that family doctors can be too quick to sign people off on sick leave because there is no incentive for them to help people stay inwork. “No incentive,” eh? Perhaps the now well-developed and successful Quality & Outcomes Framework doesn’t count, even though it is specifically designed to “reward practices for the provision of ‘quality care’”.
It also includes financial rewards for care which promotes people getting into work (e.g. see p.97), as well as explicitly recognising the general link between employment and good health (e.g. p.125). House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 07 Sep 2011. Atos took legal action vs. CarerWatch due to hyperlink. : Atos has told CarerWatch the date and time of the post that led the assessment provider to take legal action against the forum.
CarerWatch found the offending post and discovered it consisted of a link to an article about Atos that was still up and viewable on the news site. I really can’t put it better than CarerWatch did — here is their latest letter to Atos, in full: Dear CarolineThank you for supplying the date and time of the post that concerns you.We have finally traced it. We run a live discussion group and posts are normally only current for a few days. In this case the post is five months old. Latest with Atos « Carer Watch's Blog. Index on Censorship » Blog Archive » Benefits test company threatens critics with libel action. By Emily Butselaar / 23 August, 2011 Users of an online carers forum are devastated after their site was closed following threats of legal action. Emily Butselaar reports on a worrying instance of internet censorship A private firm in receipt of £100m of public money to test whether disability benefit claimants are fit for work has used legal threats to silence online criticism by disability rights campaigners.
After warnings of legal action, web host myfreeforum.org has pulled the plug on the website CarerWatch, a closed forum. The site’s users have still not been informed of the nature of the complaint. Atos Healthcare, a division of IT services firm Atos, is sub-contracted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to assess whether sick and disabled people are entitled to disability benefit (now called employment support allowance).
The assessments are a key part of the government’s welfare-to-work policy. The company has had a difficult summer. He added: 'Distress' for disabled after legal threat shuts web forum - 8/22/2011. Disabled people and carers have been caused “fear and distress” after an internet forum they use was taken down after disability assessment firm Atos Healthcare threatened to sue for libel. Atos said the forum, run by carers campaign group Carer Watch, had carried “false and malicious allegations” about the company and its employees. The forum’s internet host company shut the site without warning, a Carer Watch spokesperson said. The organisation has still not been told why Atos has threatened to sue for libel.
In a letter to the Atos legal team, Carer Watch said members had been phoning forum organisers in tears because of the fear and distress caused by the site’s suspension. However, it said it could not contact members whose contact details were lost when the site was shut. “We are in the dark and that is why we contacted Atos,” a Carer Watch spokesperson told Community Care. What do you think? Keep up to date with the latest developments in social care. Related articles: CarerWatch Discussion Forum Taken Down « Carer Watch's Blog. 22nd August We are sorry to have to announce that the CarerWatch discussion forum is currently unavailable and that we cannot get in touch with all members for the moment. We have been informed by our hosting company that we are under threat of legal action by ATOS and have therefore been taken down. As we were not contacted directly by ATOS and have received no complaints we are unaware of any issues causing concerns.
We will therefore be writing to ATOS to try and resolve this problem. Any updates will be posted here and if any members would like to hear more about what is happening please contact us at admin@carerwatch.com.