Is There List of Medical Conditions for F2F on WCA

billhan wrote: Dear Sirs,

Is there a list of medical conditions where the claimant has to be seen
by a real and qualified doctor?

Also is this the reason why my IB / ESA migration has gone to well
over eleven months since they have received my ESA50. Do they have
problems finding Doctors qualified to make judgements on rare conditions?

There is apparently a list of conditions that should be seen by a doctor, several Freedom of Information requests have revealed the content, but as far as we can tell ATOS have never honoured it as we are aware of numerous claimants who should have been seen by a doctor and haven't.

The important thing to be aware of is that there is no legal requirement for ATOS to use a doctor rather than any other Health Care Professional that they might have available, nor can the claimant insist that one be available.

It is possible that the delays afflicting ESA assessments are in part due to the lack of doctors, but it is mostly due to the DWP trying to push too many claimants through an inadequate resource.

Gordon

billhan

I'm not sure the following has the definitive list, but it will give you an idea, if I can find a more complete list then I will post it.

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/decisions_about_who_conducts_wca

As I said in my previous post there is no obligation placed on ATOS to use a doctor for an assessment rather than any other HCP even if the claimants condition appears on the list, nor can the claimant insist that there interview is carried out by a doctor, doing so risks the claimant being classed as failing to comply with the assessment which can lead to ATOS returning their file to the DWP.

The BMA have no influence over the ESA WCA.

That said, there have been several UTT Decisions where the DWP and ATOS have been criticised for using an inappropriate HCP to asses a claimant the most obvious example being a case where a Physiotherapist was used to assess a claimant with Mental Health issues, unfortunately, these are arguments for after the assessment, not before.

Gordon