What if your doctor doesn't think you're unfit to work?

avgr69

What if your doctor doesn't think you're unfit to work but you're suffering?

debbiedo49

Change your doctor

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @Scope1, welcome to the community!

So sorry to hear this. Have you considered seeing a different GP for a second opinion?

poppy123456

Yes, change your GP for someone who's more understanding. I know it certainly would. If your current GP thinks your fit for work and you need fit/sick notes then you're going to have problems. To claim ESA you need those while in the assessment phase.

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CockneyRebel

You may be suffering, you don't say with what.

Have you considered that your GP may be right and you are letting whatever is wrong get on top of you ?

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but sometimes we can blow things out of proportion

Of course if this is not the case then you should get a second opinion

CR

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Scope1,

As previously stated, you need a fit note from a GP to be able to claim and continue to claim ESA, at least until you have been assessed and accepted as having limited capability for work by the DWP.
The only option would be to change your doctor and seek another opinion. Good luck!

Lee

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debbiedo49

I was sticking to the one g p I thought I could rely on for years. He did practically nothing to get me the help I needed for years and i thought he must be right. Every time I asked for help for a referral to see a specialist he fobbed me off. I have no idea why unless it’s a cost cutting exercise. The only times I got the help I needed was when I chained myself to the desk. Recently I tried a different gp and they helped me there and then. Having chronic pain and mental health issues can make you more vulnerable to putting up with less than good health care. You may feel you have to keep proving you are unwell. It’s horrible. You know yourself better than anyone. Don’t put up with any BS. Take someone with you if you think it will help. Good luck and tut tut @cockneyrebel

debbiedo49

@Victoriad get better soon 

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debbiedo49

Good stuff

tomm

I had a GP many yewars ago who stopped issuing sick notes following  being advised by the DWP that i had failed their farce that is the WCA ,so i changed GP's and after having another partially negative expreience, (GP would issue fit notes) but would not write letter of support for appeal,)  my current GP has been very helpful 

mikehughescq

Hard to comment on a forum as we get a version of the facts rather than the facts so I wouldn’t be too hard on @CockneyRebel as it’s a valid point. The lot of a GP is not a happy one. It’s a lonely existence where you are expected to be perfect based on 10 minutes. It’s remarkable how many people want the DWP to listen to their GP rather than a HCP when their GP might see them for 10 minutes every now and then a HCP then gets 30 minutes. It never occurs that in some cases the HCP will get closer to the truth than a GP ever will. 

Better than that, the days when we went to the GP; described symptoms and then listened are long gone. Nowadays we go to the GP wanting things as though they are rights. We want a fit note. We want a specific medication or treatment. We want to see a specific person because they “know” us and the highly qualified person in front of us can’t possibly be capable of reading notes or understanding the myriad complexities of our health - the very thing they’ve been trained to do.

I have “suffered” back pain accompanying by the need to buckle to the floor in two spells. The first spell I was on painkillers 24 hours a day. I did not have a day off work. I needed to be mobile not sedentary and occupy my brain. Work was a help not hinderance. We’re all different but GPS also know that and will see that whilst some people need a fit note others with the same condition will not. 

sleepy1

Over the past few months I have witnessed quite a lot of very strange things going on at my GP surgery, I keep getting text messages to say they will be closed on certain days then get another saying that was a mistake, same again a few days later.  My own GP has left and none of the reception seem to have a clue what is going on.
Had to wait weeks to get an appointment to get some bloods taken was told to call for the results the following week, (in the meantime I had a bad fall and hurt my wrist and ankle) Just 3 hours after my blood was taken I got a phone call to say an urgent appointment had been made for me the next morning, I explained about the fall and was trying to keep my leg elevated so could we not just discuss this over the telephone.  "No it is very important you attend" when I did having had a very stressful night the doctor asked why I was there, I explained, she looked at her screen said oh yes you are anemic but your iron and blah blah is fine so we will refer you to???

While I was there I asked if she could have a look at my swollen ankle she put her hands up shook her head and said no you will have to make another appointment for that, I said fair enough I might have to go to A&E.  She then decided to have a quick look and said that looks really nasty you need to get that elevated and give me a card to go to the drop in x ray place.  They told me to ring my surgery for results in a few days.

First call the results have come back but the doctor has not made a report yet call back tomorrow.

Second call we dont have the results back it normally takes two weeks.

Third call yes we have got the results but you will need to call back tomorrow because the DR dealing with it is not in today.

Fourth call, the results have not come back yet, I asked are you sure because I was told they had.  On having another look apparently the report they got almost a week ago has informed the GP that I need to have more x rays and they have some cards for me at the practice that I must collect before I can go to for the x rays.  For some reason they are unable to send information direct to the x ray department?

I am wondering if the NHS has had another cyber/ransomware attack they are not telling us about, or have they cocked up trying to roll out another new system?

Waylay

@Victoriad I'm so sorry to hear you've had shingles. I had it too, about a month and a half ago, almost certainly due to stress from losing my PIP and insomnia due to anxiety. 

I was lucky in that I only had 7 blisters, they weren't agonising because my skin is numb due to nerve damage in that area, and they were on my leg. The itching was insane, though, the nerve they were on hurt a lot, I kept getting swelling which collected around my ankle, and I was exhausted for weeks. The antivirals made me vomit a lot, too. I thought that I'd gotten away without any post-herpetic neuralgia, but alas, it seems not. The swelling keeps coming back, too.

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Waylay

@Victoriad I already had chronic pain, which is... Lucky? Or something. Gabapentin, Venlafaxine, tramadol and morphine, as well as heat, TENS, relaxation exercises, etc. At least I know how to handle it.

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