Where to turn when even GP belittles me — Scope | Disability forum
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Where to turn when even GP belittles me

candos60
candos60 Community member Posts: 12 Connected
Hi,  I am one of those caught in the DLA to PIP transition, currently awaiting court hearing.  My latest problem regarding this is about what else we lose besides money, bus passes, train passes etc.   My disabled bus pass ran out in June-Same time my PIP application was first knocked back. My local council sent me a form that my GP could sign to still enable me to renew the pass. I took the form to her but she eventually refused and I was rocked to the core when she said to me “You can’t have such things as a bus pass “just because” you have.......she binned the form after a phone call saying she’d read the form and with her hand on her heart she couldn’t say I met the criteria.  That made me ill, really ill, I couldn’t eat , sleep or stop myself breaking down  several times a day. Having to explain it even to this day still breaks me. I eventually got another form; I printed several things from CAB website and went back last week.  My best friend wanted me to see another Dr who would sign it but I couldn’t do it. I had to face the previous GP and prove how derogatory and wrong she was. So on Friday last, back I went.  I don’t think it went well; after she’s   read the paperwork I gave her I still don’t believe she will change her attitude. 
I know that what counts is how you are affected by your disability. I know it’s not about the name of your disability, but I cannot seem to find this explanation in every day terminology rather than how Government ambiguously describes it  to confuse anybody. Anybody have any idea or a link to somewhere that gives this explanation? Sorry for the long post, I’m not good at short and precise. 

Comments

  • CockneyRebel
    CockneyRebel Community member Posts: 5,209 Disability Gamechanger
    Hello candos and welcome

    Many GP's don't understand the PIP system and we have to educate them to reality

    Can you tell us a bit more about your self and the help you need ?

    A good place to start understanding the PIP process, the points system, descriptos and the criteria for an award is the B&W self test

    http://www.mybenefitsandwork.co.uk/pip/indexxx.php

    Please have a read of the info on this site and come back with your questions

    CR

    Be all you can be, make  every day count. Namaste
  • WeeAndCuddly
    WeeAndCuddly Community member Posts: 4 Listener
    I'm shocked to know that a G.P. would treat anyonanyone this way.
  • candos60
    candos60 Community member Posts: 12 Connected
    WeeAndCuddly. So was I.  Up to that point I had trusted that GP without exception.  That’s why I was so shocked and taken aback by her comment, her ignorance and I told her so on Friday when I went back to her.  Even though I handed her CAB paperwork to read through later I still left the surgery feeling she was very flippant about my whole situation. 
  • janice_in_wonderland
    janice_in_wonderland Community member Posts: 265 Pioneering
    Hi everyone 
    it wasn't until I insisted I needed to see a specialist consultant was I taken seriously by my gp 

    I'm the type of person who hides illness well so I either have to stay home or only go out if I feel I can and it's so unpredictable I'm not surprised people don't understand unless they lived with me 

    even I don't understand how symptoms can fluctuate so much 

    This is a lifetime battle with everyone except a specialist 

    I hope the judgement of invisible sporadic ill health changes soon bc it's so distressing not being listened to or taken seriously 

    i sympathise as I too am in your situation awaiting tribunal appts 

    i can't face seeing a hew dr after moving so I'm right back to square 1
  • candos60
    candos60 Community member Posts: 12 Connected
    Oh my goodness I feel for you. I had to start from scratch with GPs, hospitals etc 7 yrs ago when I last moved. It was horrid in one way starting afresh but I did get to have other medical intervention which helped a lot in the long run. I hope everything turns out well for you. 
  • thespiceman
    thespiceman Community member Posts: 6,388 Disability Gamechanger
    Hello @candos60   I am sorry what you have been through.  I know this is not right and I still can not believe doctors like yours practise medicine.  I also had issues when I moved to where I am now with the surgery.  I got tired of the limited time and trying to talk .  Got mental health issues and there I am sweating like mad.  Trying to talk getting nowhere.  Then I contact advocacy services.  There will be some in your area.  I appointed tis advocate and soon as I entered the surgery a veil was lifted.  Got help and advice and now can not do enough for me this doctor.  Especially this year.  I hope any of this helps you.
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  • wildlife
    wildlife Community member Posts: 1,293 Pioneering
    edited December 2017
    @candos60 Contact Patient advice and liaison services (PALS) 
    They will contact your surgery and help sort out your problem or point you in the right direction for help. 
  • geegee1104
    geegee1104 Community member Posts: 11 Listener
    So srry yu like others are being made to jump through hoops. I am dreading my pip reaccesment. Uou gear such grave stories hope you get it sorted soon. Gental hugs  x

    By the way wildlife  what is pals. And how and why would you contact them.
     Thankyou.
  • thespiceman
    thespiceman Community member Posts: 6,388 Disability Gamechanger
    Hello @geegee1104 I just like to say hope and pray for you that  assessment goes OK.  Yes I understand what you are going through all of us in this community I am sure feel for you.  Best wishes and I know you have a lot of support on this forum.  I understand the worry and would suggest have someone to go with you plus make sure they speak for you if that is possible.  I have been there.  Please take care and welcome to the forum.
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 1,741 Listener
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  • candos60
    candos60 Community member Posts: 12 Connected
    Well here I am another month or so down the line and no nearer a court hearing date. Paperwork is with the CAB awaiting Specialist Advisor appt to help put everything in place to submit for the hearing. Happier 2018?-not so far. I’ve now been “invited” back for ESA assessment, even though I’m in the support group, but of course anyone with a dot of sense knows I cannot possibly be disabled any longer because the Government say so on the whim of pretty much overpaid, lying Capita Assessor. I’m lucky that I have my best friend to attend both with me, but on a day to day coping with everything basis  and all this too, it doesn’t feel much, and that makes me feel so ungrateful, which I’m not. I now have to return to the GP for a letter so that Atos will provide transport to their assessment, even though they provided the last two and know in advance i have had a steep decline in health in the last 3 years. Supposedly what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger but these people test it to the limit and beyond.  I would never do anything so dramatic but I so understand how many people get to the point they have no fight left see no way back up and take the most dramatic route of all. For these people, then people like us MUST fight to the last to get what we rightfully deserve and have long been deprived of by a Government doing all they can to send us to hell in a handcart. 
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 1,741 Listener
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  • thespiceman
    thespiceman Community member Posts: 6,388 Disability Gamechanger
    edited January 2018
    Hello @candos60 How are you?  Seems that the process is ongoing.  I want to say hang in there.  I am one that is still always will be fighting for our community.  Speaking personally having had to do this so many many times that is becoming tiresome.  Constantly repeating you medical history like a record got stuck.  I would think about advocacy services doctors though.  Good people will help with situation in doctors.  Main problem is being believed.  Yes it is great to have a medical professional with you.  Social Worker, support worker.  The problem I had was this.  Even though I was a client of a mental health charity.  They were overworked with others on caseloads.  So when I had appointment assessment got no one to come with me.  Cancelled three times.  Because I was scared to go on own.  I need some one there.  Not only for support because I was frightened if the person assessing me started to push my buttons like the last few assessments.  They know they are doing this by way, also do not mean to worry you.  Some of these people tact and decorum, manners, attitude in my own past experience got to be sorted.  Last but one lied in front of me and even said so, made me feel inadequate and humiliated.  If I had known then what I have know now would be suing the pants off them.  That is my story.   Pleased to see you having a friend come with you.  This my big worry next one I have to do when it arrives.  Is finding some one to come with me.  Last time rang up welfare rights the same as mental charity.  In fact I discussed this with team manager why not have some one specific to deal with these assessments in the charity plus benefits and anything else.  Replied got do not need that, well you do now.  As more people in the charity taking up support workers time.  Then excuse funding problem.  Went down conference run by charity.  Seems it is area by area that some have these people dedicated to the task.  I hope and pray everything goes great nice to talk to you.
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  • wildlife
    wildlife Community member Posts: 1,293 Pioneering
    @geegee1104 PALS is the Patient Advice and Liaison Service. They help people with any problems they have with dealing with the NHS. I tried to get Council Tax help for my severe mental health. I made sure by speaking to the correct office that I met the criteria and would have got a reduction provided my GP signed the form. However she rang them herself and was told something different. She rang me at home saying she couldn't sign the form as I didn't meet the criteria. There was nothing I could do.  
  • candos60
    candos60 Community member Posts: 12 Connected
    @Wildlife I’m one for standing my ground and I went back to that GP some time later when I felt I could keep myself together long enough to make it crystal clear how she made me feel and how wrong she was. Instead of the normal bottle of Prosecco for Christmas she had a portion of humble pie! The only other surgery in this small area is in the same building and the two do work together albeit they are individual. 
    The signing of the form situation you faced is exactly what happened to me. I knew she was wrong and I knew the Equality Act of 2010 backed me to the hilt. It isn’t the nature of the disability but the effect it has on your daily life. Could the same not be said for you? I’m not looking for an answer, merely hoping it could help you too. A few years ago I went on a pain management course. It was good but a lot you already knew. I did it to use in future paperwork. The Consultant who put the course together and gave the odd ‘lecture’ was an ex GP. A convert from back pain doesn’t exist following a sports accident. He told us GPs were our first port of call only; they were there to direct us in the next move, their experience very limited due to alloted time slots.  How right he was. I hope you can move forward with that paperwork, don’t feel you cannot go back, point out their misunderstanding; even like I did point out the exact wording of why they were wrong, which section they should be signing and to an extent what they should be saying. You know your body better than them.  
    I get extremely irate at these ESA assessments, they know me by now. I ask their qualification in result to my health conditions-a heart surgeon wouldn’t have a clue for instance-not that they’d waste their time in that way. I’m never in assessment longer than 15 minutes. Probably be harder this next time round because they’ll be looking to prove I’m no longer disabled because I’ve lost DLA to PIP ....only until the court hearing. 

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