Chesterfield Online Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Old Cruser on July 30, 2012, 05:21:55 PM
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BBC 2 tonight at 8.30pm
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Just in case anyone can't remember:
http://chesterfieldonline.org/index.php/topic,1130.msg6228.html (http://chesterfieldonline.org/index.php/topic,1130.msg6228.html)
http://bit.ly/Q7PT7e (http://bit.ly/Q7PT7e)
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At 8.00pm on Channel 4 there was a documentary about ATOS Healthcare, who, with together with DWP, do the 'testing' to see if someone is fit for work.
An undercover doctor did secret filming of his 'training' and some of the ways of scoring the criteria was beyond belief! :o
I don't condone the benefit cheats but, on the other hand, after watching that programme I believe that a lot of people who would find working extremely difficult would be deemed 'fit for work'.
The undercover doctor even had his scoring of people changed as he'd allegedly marked people too high (score '0' = no problem, score '15' severe problems) and, when the programme makers challenged ATOS/DWP, they said that the doctor was known to be unscrupulous!
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I have heard of ATOS and the way it has operated, didn't realise this was about them though until I began watching it.
To be honest I wonder how much extra it would cost the gov to employ people who extremely disabled.
For example wheelchair users would need, a large toilet area or a hoist with a bed plus a P.A. AND a building which is accessible! How are they going to manage this? Not thought it through have they!
I am all for any disabled person working if they are able - but I can tell you it's not that easy.
and NO I'm not disabled as slandered awhile ago ;)
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Its a difficult one I suppose.
Clearly there are some people who are fiddling the system, the BBC in its usual leftist slant spent approx. 20 seconds highlighting a few at the start of the programme.
There are others who clearly aren't in a postition to work.
And there are those who could do some form of work.
The problem is how do you find who is who without some form of test. Originally this was done by the GP I believe but abuse was strife, we all know doctors are all too quick at writing out a sicknote so they can move on to the next patient, and the whiplash scam only exists because doctors don't or can't do rigourous enough health checks on their patients to tell the genuine from the conman.
One of the chaps featured in the programme was one of the Govt advisers and he accepted there were issues but that there were changes in the pipeline, implemented in lots of places but not fully rolled out yet, but the BBC wanted to focus on the fact that there faults rather than the fact that faults had been identified and being resolved.
Personally, I've thought for a long time, that its time to bring back community nurses...a whole army of them, employed by the NHS. And funded by scrapping council employed social workers, who constantly fail at what they are meant to do.
A community nurse who lives and works in a community would know her local patients and know who needs help and what kind of help, whether its with benefits, old people needing social help, young teenages in school needing sex advice, young mums who need help bringing up baby....this is surely the role of someone with a medical background, not a degree in sociology.
Another common sense idea that won't get off the ground.
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I've seen a couple of programs about folks faking it - and some really cheeky folks were in need of a copper feeling their collar, but I think this program was about the other side of the coin.
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Apparently Channel 4 did a Dispatches program about this too, with a GP going undercover with Atos - quite an eye opener.
The whole charade is a disgrace, but who can blame Atos when the government are paying them £100m a year...
http://bit.ly/M6BlQS (http://bit.ly/M6BlQS)
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Apparently Channel 4 did a Dispatches program about this too, with a GP going undercover with Atos - quite an eye opener.
The whole charade is a disgrace, but who can blame Atos when the government are paying them £100m a year...
http://bit.ly/M6BlQS (http://bit.ly/M6BlQS)
Ahem! Did you not read my post (#2)? Really Pete, this dementia thing is starting to seriously kick in! Yp
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Sorry mate, I skim read it. Thought you were explaining t'other one for any members that weren't up to speed.
*musttryharder*
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*musttryharder*
Oy! You been reading my old school reports!!! :))