RE E.S.A Medicals Assessment Centres

Jeff1 wrote:

Hi dippypud, Have you thought about contacting your MP with a view to making a formal complaint against ATOS. I think its disgusting the way you and your husband were treated. Please consider it. Best Wishes

good advice, and don't forget to tell the local and national newspapers too - especially ones that have an online version so people can add their experiences of ATOS through the comments section... may be the longest comments section of all time!

The name ATOS says it all. Could give a toss !

Hi Diddypud,
I agree with other postings You have the right to make a formal complaint and involve your local M.P.
Personally haven given the matter some serious thought ( irrespective of My home assessment medical results) I will be presenting my local M.P with all of the information in relation to my A.T.O.S experience.
Possibly to no avail but I feel I must as an individual try to do something to change the situation.
They say that word is mightier than the sword and if sufficient numbers of people with sufficient words step forward possibly it may prevent the mighty fall of the sword and prevent the proposed cuts.

Best Wishes

Bill

AS someone said you could not make it up!!!! I cannot believe they would leave someone in a wheelchair in the rain when they could just let you sit in reception! Common decency should dictate behaviour.

I am awaiting being called about a Home Visit for ESA, as I am on crutches or in a wheelchair and cannot dictate which I will need on day of medical (depends on pain level). they said that my local medical centre being on 2nd floor is not safe for me, got offered ones which are so far away, before they said a home visit is the only solution! They were nice on phone, but I did explain that they cannot just send me a date, as I want my husband to be present and he can only take certain days off work.

Hi Bill

Am wondering if it would be worth you contacting the Independent Case Examiner and if you have no luck there, the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman - just to check if 'lack of accessibility to Atos Healthcare Medical Assessment Centres' lies under their jurisdiction. If so, they will instruct you to first take your complaint to Jobcentre Plus and/or Atos Healthcare.

It maybe that the Equality and Human Rights Commission could offer advice on whether they are actually breaking the law as well as causing inconvenience, discomfort and distress to claimants and how best to proceed with your complaint.

Complaining can be a lengthy and sressful process, so i would try and find out from the outset, who is most likely to be able to resolve not only your individual complaint, but also investigate 'poor access to medical assessment centres' as a systemic issue, as there are obviously other Atos centres with similar problems.

Hopefully your MP will also help in targeting your complaint, but i guess Atos Healthcare is a good starting point.

Best of luck with it all.

We did make a formal complaint to Atos head office.
Received a nice written reply from our area manager, who said that the person responsible for the lunchtime comments has received "additional customer awareness training".
Thought that was pretty good really.

We could have been ingnored, also Hubby didn't lose out because we hadn't had the medical. They arranged another time at a different venue, and that went well.

Regards, Pud