Monthly Archives: August 2013

MP’s concern over lack of wheelchair access at Norwich assessment centre

August 27, 2013   Carers, disability, Norfolk

Adam Gretton Health correspondent adam.gretton@archant.co.uk
Monday, August 26, 2013

A Norfolk MP has called on the government to ensure that all medical assessment centres are disability friendly after highlighting the accessibility problems at a Norwich facility.

ATOS disability protestors in Norwich. Photo: Bill Smith ATOS disability protestors in Norwich. Photo: Bill Smith

Protesters gathered outside a Norwich disability centre last year to demonstrate about the lack of wheelchair access at St Mary’s House, which is run by private contractor Atos Healthcare.

The centre in Duke Street, where people undergo medicals for disability benefits, can not be visited by wheelchair users, has no parking and is a not near a bus or train station.

MP Richard Bacon urged the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to ensure that Atos Healthcare’s centres are accessible to wheelchair users and people with limited mobility.

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GPs charge disabled up to £130 to appeal fitness-to-work decisions

August 27, 2013   Carers, ukcuts

GPs charge disabled up to £130 to appeal fitness-to-work decisions

Emily Dugan Author Biography

Monday 26 August 2013

Doctors are charging sick and disabled people up to £130 for medical evidence to appeal decisions about their fitness to work, The Independent has learnt.

NHS GPs are telling patients they will only provide the necessary details to challenge controversial Work Capability Assessments if they pay. Others are refusing to help at all.

Citizens Advice say in many areas GPs are helping with an appeal only if patients pay a fee of between £25 and £130. There are also reports from 15 of its centres that family surgeries are refusing to provide evidence at all.

GPs who refuse to help – or charge increasingly high fees – argue that writing up medical evidence takes up time when they could be helping patients.

But Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Charging sick and disabled people more than £100 for medical evidence beggars belief. This process is clearly failing.”

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Carers are the best kind of people. So why are they treated so disgracefully?

August 27, 2013   autism, Carers, disability, epilepsy, stigma

My brother’s carer had to leave, her minimum wage not enough to survive on. My brother is heartbroken. I’m furious

The Guardian,

Swimming carer

‘There is no training course in the world that can truly prepare you for becoming a carer: it’s something you either have or you don’t.’ Photograph: Gary Calton

We lost someone important to us this weekend. My mum rang me, crying from a hotel room, after Megan had said goodbye, and what a shame it was. She didn’t want to go. We didn’t want her to go either.

Megan was my younger brother’s carer. His autism and epilepsy means he needs round-the-clock assistance. Megan had split up with her boyfriend, and the minimum wage she was being paid was not enough for her to live alone – so she has to go away, to live with her parents. My brother will not understand this: he will just see that she is gone, and miss her. But we understand it. Having witnessed the work of a succession of carers while I was growing up, I not only noticed what an incredible, noble thing it is to devote your time to looking after someone more vulnerable than you, but also how little society gives a toss about it.

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