A matter of common sense

I promised not to blog about my health issues until til my physio date unless there was something important to blog about. Well in the last few dates I have reason to not only blog but scream with total frustration.

As you may have read I have been recognised as disabled and awarded a benefit to enable me to get out and about a bit more. But there is another benefit I am on called ESA, it's a bit like job seekers but for those unable to work. Well they have a rule that if you claim this after 13 weeks you are liable to attend a medical dependant on the form you have to fill in. My form arrived mid September where I clearly labelled I was in the process of having scans and wouldn't know the result.

It was for this reason I didn't get a verdict on my DLA until this month as they had the sense to wait for those reports. The ESA department decided that they need to do their own medical to see if I can go to work regardless of the fact the consultant has already stated I won't be fit to do anything work related until I have had my Physio assessment and then their structure of physio put in place. Only then will we know what is permanent damage, and what is treatable. So the ESA department have decided to arrange me a medical a week after the assessment and before I will have started treatment.

The reason behind all this is because the medical decides my fate, if they say I am fit for work, even limited work, I get moved back to JSA and have to find some one who will employ me, who is unable to even carry a handbag to work or a cup of coffee from one room to another. Or if that is the decision I can appeal it and remain on the basic level of benefit until they review this. I have heard of people being on their 3rd or 4th appeal to get the matter sorted. If they do rule in my favour I am put in one of two channels, I get a higher level of benefit providing I attend return to work workshops , or the other road is they accept I am crippled at the moment, increase my benefit and leave me alone.

The problem with all this is, I have cancel any medical appointment if it clashes with any appointment or workshop the DHSS issue. Anyone with any sense know trying to get an appointment with Physios and Specialists is like finding the holy grail, and you can't just decide when you want them. In some cases failure to attend gets you sent back to square one and you have to start the referral system again. But the DHSS have decided that their workshops and interviews are priority over this. I know some of this is to prevent fraud etc, but a little commonsense is required here.

Why do I need to go to a medical and probably poked and jabbed in places in my back even my consultant wont touch with out the scan pictures in front of him. When a simple letter from a GP, Consultant and Physio could spell it out. Yes a doctor could be subject to a little vagueness in a report , but when 3 different specialists and medically trained people are saying the same thing, and there are scan pictures to prove this findings. Why does some generally trained doctor have the right to overthrow and question a specialists findings?

What ever the whinging I am still stuck being forced to attend a medical that is physically making me sick at the idea of attending, it is non optional and that's the end of it. However I do wonder where the common sense is in all this, and I am stuck wasting tax payers money to prove, something that has already been established. What is worse I am could be put in the situation of being mis judged and either joining the masses of unemployed and having to attend interviews at the job centre I can even get to as there is no lift, or wasting more tax money appealing against the judgement to prove the already prov en point. This whole system has gone mad, I have already got through the highest stage of disability benefit yet may get stuck at the middle level.

I seriously think that the people who make this system and judge on certain parts of it are straight out of Alice in wonderland, they have certainly been eating the caterpillars mushrooms.