27 September 2011

Dr Michael ChamberlainChairman, BMJ (British Medical Journal) Group Board

Andrea Spyropoulos, President,Royal College of Nursing

Dear Dr Chamberlain and Andrea Spyropoulos,

Re: Atos Healthcare and parent company Atos Origin

As sick and disabled people, carers and other concerned people, including professionals, we are writing to you to urge the Royal College of Nursing and BMJ Group to immediately end your relationship with Atos, including stopping any advertising of Atos jobs or Atos the company on your websites, and not having Atos at the RCN Bulletin Jobs Fair 13-14 September, or the BMJ recruitment fair 30 September to 1 October 2011 in London.

As you know, Atos currently has a £100m a year contract with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to carry out examinations for disability benefits.

We are outraged that Atos is profiting from denying those of us who are sick or disabled, the benefits we need to survive and maintain our level of health. In May, at the protest outside Atos headquarters, a number of people spoke about our experiences of the examination, being denied benefit and having to appeal to get it back. One woman testified that her brother, who had severe depression, committed suicide after being cut off. See:

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/video/2011/may/11/disability-protest-atos-origin-video

The media have exposed more of the dire consequences of Atos’ decisions. In February, the Daily Mirror highlighted the case of a Derbyshire man with a heart condition, found fit for work, who had to go through tribunal to appeal, then was awarded Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) but died of a heart attack the day before his next Atos exam was due.

A Channel 4 News report on 27 July 2011 acknowledged what thousands have been saying: it interviewed the heartbroken partner of a critically ill man whom Atos denied his entitlement on grounds that he was ‘fit for work’ – he died less than three months later. How many more people have died following such cruel and callous treatment? The coverage was prompted by a Parliamentary report from the Work and Pensions Committee of MPs, in which they criticised Atos. Atos the powerful multinational has taken vindictive action against disabled people and carers’ websites where it is criticised, getting sites closed down which isolated people rely on for support.

In August, the Guardian reported that 12 Atos doctors are under investigation by the General Medical Council for improper conduct. The article referred to numerous previous cases and investigations by other bodies.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/13/atos-doctors-improper-conduct-disability

A nurse in Scotland was so shocked at Atos’s behaviour that she blew the whistle on them. She said that people with serious lung diseases were found fit for work as long as they could sit in front of a computer, and that parents who attend with their children are automatically found fit for work. And Atos is investigating staff, one a nurse, who used their Facebook pages to insult people as “parasitic wankers” and “down and outs”.

According to DWP figures, only 6% of those who have been assessed are placed in the Support Group of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) which exempts them from the work conditions now attached to benefit. (This 6% includes claimants whom the DWP has already exempted from the Atos examination because their condition is so serious.)  http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/esa_wca/esa_wca_27072010.pdf

The Royal College of Psychiatrists and many others have strongly criticised the devastating effect the Atos exam and cuts have had on patients.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/31/incapacity-benefit-cuts-mental-health

GP Margaret McCartney, writing in the BMJ, has questioned the ethics of doctors performing assessments without access to patients’ medical records, and the lack of specialist knowledge of physiotherapists and general nurses employed by Atos. (BMJ 2011; 342:d599. Full article attached.)

Since 1995, when medical assessments for incapacity benefit were privatised and taken out of public services, standards have steadily declined. But Atos has brought this to a new low. While none of the work tests deserve to be called a “medical” as they have no basis in patient welfare, since Atos started carrying out the ESA tests in 2008, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people with severe illness and disability being assessed as fit for work and denied benefits.

This has been clear for some time. In 2009, ‘Who’s Cheating Who?’, a BBC Scotland documentary, highlighted the plight of June Mitchell who applied for sickness benefit. When examined by Atos, she complained of breathlessness and feeling tired. She was scored zero points and found fit for work. She went back to her GP, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and died shortly afterwards.

Doctors’ and nurses’ ethics are being corrupted by Atos’ offers of higher salaries and daytime reduced work hours. Some doctors have tried to argue that their duty to patients does not apply when assessing benefit claimants on behalf of Atos. But the General Medical Council has upheld that doctors are always bound by this duty whether seeing patients, employees (when assessing occupational health), benefit and insurance claimants, athletes, among others (see attached response from the Standards & Fitness to Practise Directorate).

As doctors and nurses are enticed into privatisation, and cases of criminal negligence and even murder in hospitals and care homes hit the headlines, patients and their loved ones are increasingly speaking out against the indifference and cruelty they face at the hands of those paid to protect them.

Claimants rightly fear that most Atos assessors are uncaring and prejudiced – they work to targets which have nothing to do with patients’ individual health needs or with the realities of the job market which sick and disabled people are being thrown into. The stress of the Atos examinations has hastened deaths and caused a number of people to commit suicide. For many others, it is exacerbating their already fragile health condition.

Atos kills. Medical professionals who lend it credibility give it a licence to kill. We call on the BMJ Group and RCN to end all association with Atos, and on doctors and nurses to defend patients and uphold our welfare.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Benefit Claimants Fightback  notowelfarecuts@yahoo.co.uk

Black Triangle  info@blacktrianglecampaign.org

Defend Welfare network

Disabled People Against Cuts  mail@dpac.uk.net

WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities)

And: (full list of signatories at 27 September 2011):

Niki Adams, Legal Action for Women

Peter Ambrose, Visiting Professor in Housing and Health, University of Brighton

Cristel Amiss, Black Women’s Rape Action Project

Arts Against Cuts

Kate Atherton, UK Uncut

Professor Peter Beresford OBE, Brunel University and Chair, Shaping Our Lives

Sue Bott, Director, National Centre for Independent Living

Brighton & Hove TUC Unemployed Workers Centre

Brighton Disabled People Against Cuts

Linda Burnip, Debbie Jolly, Eleanor Lisney, Disabled People Against Cuts (UK)

Sara Callaway, Women of Colour in the Global Women’s Strike

Julia Cameron, Islington Disabled People Against Cuts

Dr Stephen M Carty, GP, Edinburgh

Roderick Cobley, Chair, London Autistic Rights Movement (personal capacity)

Dr Jillian Creasy, GP, Green Party councillor for Central ward, Sheffield

Liz Crow, Roaring Girl Productions

Dr Paul A. Darke, Outside Centre

Rhian Davies, Chief Executive, Disability Wales (and Rhyan Berrigan, Tania Bhutto – member, Maggie Hayes – intern, Paul Swann – policy officer, Independent Living)

Nyami Enyako, Rehabilitation Officer with Visually Impaired People, Sensory Services, London Borough of Lambeth

Kirsten Forkert, University and College Union (personal capacity)

Mat Fraser, actor and writer

Glasgow Coalition of Resistance

Claire Glasman, WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities)

Anat Greenstein, Research Institute of Health and Social Change, Manchester Metropolitan University

Helmut Heib, National Union of Teachers (personal capacity)

Dr Marion Hersh, University of Glasgow

Sarah Hitchings, Lewes Stop The Cuts

Cat Hobbs, Oxford Save Our Services

Islington Poverty Action Group

Michael Kalmanovitz, Payday men’s network

Michael Lavalette, National Convenor, Social Work Action Network

Jill Leigh, BA, CQSW., Dip Counselling.

Lesbian Bi Trans Queer in the Global Women’s Strike

Lewisham Anti-Cuts Alliance

Phil Lockwood, Information Co-ordinator & Webmaster, Black Triangle

London Coalition Against Poverty

Nina López, Global Women’s Strike

Adam Lotun, Disability Risk Management & Reasonable Adjustments, Consultant, Workplace Disability Adjustments

Marie Lynam, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

Nushra Mansuri, British Association of Social Workers

John McArdle, Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign In Defence of Disability Rights

Gillian McDonald, RMN, NHS Lothian

John McDonnell MP

Denise McKenna, Mental Health Resistance Network

Ronan McNern, Queer Resistance

Cari Mitchell, English Collective of Prostitutes

Dan Morton, Social Work Action Network ( London )

Stella Mpaka, All African Women’s Group

Rev Paul Nicolson, Chair, Zacchaeus 2000 Trust

Notts Save Our Services —  http://nottssos.org.uk

Notts Uncut

Nurses Against Atos

Andrew Osborne, Cambridgeshire Against the Cuts

Anna Owens, secretary, PCS Revenue & Customs branch committee

Redhill Coalition Against Cuts

Ian Sandeman, DLA Help Group

Bill Scott, Manager, Inclusion Scotland (personal capacity)

Dave Sherry, Secretary, UNITE Scottish Housing Branch

Dr Ron Singer, president, Medical Practitioners’ Union, the doctors’ section of UNITE

Dave Skull, South East London Mad Pride

Kim Sparrow, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence

Phil Stevens, Director, Wales Council for the Blind (representing over 63 separate visual impairment groups providing support and assistance to visually impaired people – including list below**)

Russell Stronach, co-Chair, Autistic Rights Movement UK

Peter Tatchell, Peter Tatchell Foundation

The Cuts Won’t Work

Pip Tindall, Brighton Benefits Campaign

Johnny Void, Benefit Claimants Fightback

Welfare Action Hackney

Vin West, Secretary, Arfon Access Group

Alan Wheatley, Green Party TU Group Disability Spokesperson

Alison Wilde, Bangor University

Rick Wilson, Community Lives Consortium, Wales (personal capacity)

Dr Sarah Woodin, University of Leeds (personal capacity)

Dr Felicity de Zulueta, Emeritus Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at the SLaM NHS Foundation Trust and Hon. Senior Lecturer in Traumatic Studies at KCL

**Amman Valley Blind Society, Ammanford Blind Society, Bridgevis, Brynamman Blind Society, Carmarthen Area Blind Society, Carmarthenshire County Blind Society, Ceredigion Association for the Blind, Cwmamman Blind Society, In-Sight, Llandeilo Blind Society, Llandovery & District Blind Association, Llandybie Blind Society, Llanelli Blind Society, LOOK, Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind, Monmouth Visually Impaired Club, Mynydd Mawr Blind Society, North Wales Welsh Cassette Service, Partially Sighted Society, Pembrokeshire Blind Society, Radnorshire Association for the Blind, Rhondda Blind Society, Rhuddlan Borough Talking Newspaper, South Wales Talking Magazine Association, Vision Support, Visual Impairment Breconshire, Visual Impairment West Glamorgan, Visually Impaired Merthyr Tydfil, Visually Impaired Children Taking Action

for further details and references visit:  http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/open-letter-on-atos-healthcare-to-the-bmj-and-rcn/