Standard Format Form used by Medical Professionals to report their findings in respect of an ESA assessment. Part 2

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Department for Work and Pensions should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Keith Alexander Mallen

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

In respect of,

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

I have the impression that my original request was handed off to,

"DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions."

and as a result any further requests are sent into the bit-bucket without an auto-responder responding.

Once again, and with reference to my previous request[s]...

"Please assume that I, as a John DOA, attend an ESA assessment as implemented by ATOS whereby the 'Medical Professional' hits the 'submit' button without modifying the 'electronic copy' of the 'form' they are expected to fill out and provide a copy of the results."

Yours faithfully,

Keith Alexander Mallen

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...

Keith Alexander Mallen left an annotation ()

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"That’s not the only discrepancy. The report talks of “lower back pain” – nothing about the legs or feet. It claims he can stay in one place for an hour – no mention of John’s need to move every 10-15 minutes. Other details that John and Jones remember coming up – the hours it takes him just to stretch out in the morning; his habit of falling over; the fact his pain is constant – are simply missing. Jones says in puzzlement: “The report looks like it was just cut and paste.”

**“The report looks like it was just cut and paste."**

John Slater left an annotation ()

Keith,
I suspect that most of the problems with medical reports is LiMA. This is the application used by the DWP to record information about the WCA and produce the medical report. It uses 'standard phrases' that the HCP can select. Whilst there is a free text option those lazy HCPs simply click on options offered by LiMA. This leads to inaccurate/incorrect reports and sadly the reports don't reflect what was actually said during the WCA. This is why it is so important for people to audio record their WCA (covertly if necessary) to prove that they did or didn't say something.

Keith Alexander Mallen left an annotation ()

John..

No Idea about Lima. Example I have is 'Medical Professional' did not 'do her job' properly, perhaps she had a 'bad hair day'. When the result gets filtered via the DWP Assessor... game over.

I suppose it is all 'jobs worth' without consideration or responsibility.

http://hightechchat.reocities.com/SoHo/o...

'I can refine that'...

To: Ben Gummer <ben@bengummer.com>
CC: "GUMMER, Ben" <ben.gummer.mp@parliament.uk>
Subject: Apparently these days you have something to do with the NHS.
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:02:03 +0100

I assume your remit does not extend to...

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

and therefore you are in a position to ignore such concerns.

Keith Alexander Mallen

Leigh Park Initiative left an annotation ()

Some information about LiMA that may be helpful... including discussions about default answers/dropdown menus/algorithms restricting available questions.

2006 - http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/17...
Historical entry relating to editing of medical reports by DWP reviewers to disguise evidence of poor practice.

2011 https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...
Note references to drop down menus and prepared answers.

2012 - https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...
An attempt by questioner to determine the level of "expertise" lying behind the LiMA software design/testing..

March 2013 - http://www.whywaitforever.com/dwpatoslim...
A website prepared by a claimant, giving a description of LiMA software including algorithms that restrict the questions an examiner may ask based on previous entries. Links to other resources.
Extract from the Manual
" Note however, that when you click one of the lists to open it, you may not find all the usual choices available to you. LiMA uses its database of logical rules to restrict the available choices to only those that fit the information you have already provided
Curtailment of high scoring cases has been developed in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions as a way of reducing the time to complete lengthy cases where many activities are affected by multiple disabling conditions. "

It would appear that the WCA is (and has been since its inception) based on a mechanistic pre-programmed system that may be constitutionally incapable of properly facilitating an intelligent personalised individual assessment of a disabled/chronically ill person's ability to work/seek work/prepare for work. DWP appear to have been making a sustained attempt to conceal this fact for many years.

Keith Alexander Mallen

Dear DWP freedom-of-information-requests,

We appear to have disappeared down that dark hole again. I make an FOI request to 'you' and "DWP Health Services Correspondence" responds then fail to follow up on subsequent requests...

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

Obviously I am a novice in respect of this game and prone to not making much sense or otherwise wandering off somewhere else. However in respect of Lima and from my previous black holed request,

"Assuming that is the case in as much as some/full consultation was involved, and I would be slightly disturbed if it was not full, then, given you are supposedly not in a position to "create new information", please provide a complete copy of the current/final specification document as agreed between the parties involved including any relevant communications during its generation, not solely restricted to 'Maximus', concerned."

I suppose I can make that 'easier' for you assuming I can word things correctly...

Please provide a complete list of the possible primary and/or secondary/other responses suggested by Lima to an HCP when they are filling out an ESA85 after completing an assessment of a claimant.

Please also provide a complete list of primary and/or secondary/other information that will be added to the ESA85 based on the primary and/or secondary response as selected by the HCP.

This should not be 'new information'. If you were to claim as much I would have to question your competence in respect of specifying and verifying IT contracts.

Yours sincerely,

Keith Alexander Mallen

DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

Dear Mr Mallen,
 
In response to your follow up email received on 12 November 2016 regarding
your FOI request, I can confirm that you will receive a response by the
20^th working day, which is 25 November 2016.
 
Yours sincerely
 
DWP Health Services Correspondence Team
 
 

show quoted sections

DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Mallen,
 
Please see our response to your recent Freedom of Information request.
 
Yours sincerely
 
DWP Health Services Correspondence Team
 
 

show quoted sections