ATOS/Occupational health assessment

[smelly_cat_lady]

I've read the posts on the ATOS situation in the stickies but feel I would benefit from direct experience/advice from anyone who has already undergone an assessment in the workplace. If you don't feel comfortable airing your views in public, please PM me. Many thanks

[music4essex]

My dealing with atos have been mainly positive.

I did for a while not bother with them, but evetually succumbed when I got bitten by a dog, subsequently have been in contact with them by referalls from the dom and lino, who have an hidden agenda (want me out for want of a better word)

So far Atos are with me, you can pm me if you want more info

TOWI Essex mum

[worktotime]

i dont think atos are to bad , i was refered twice by dom , before the second time my dom rang me and in the phone call ihr was mentioned after 4 mths off which he classed as long term sick, when atos got in touch i mentioned this and it was stressing me out on top of everything that was going on , atos wasnt very happy as they wrote him and me a letter telling him as the uk law regarding long term sick is 12mths and basically told him he was wrong and the illness did not warrant long term sick , which i thought put him right.

[pokos27]

they are ok, i had 3 face to face assessments they were fine, they will write a report and then submit to the dom, you have a chance to read it, they sometimes recommend ill health retirement light duties.
sometimes its better to have face to face rather than phone consultation, face to face are usually done at mail centres, or dss centres.
I dont think they are against you.

[daveyeff]

they are most certainly open to suggestion from doms/dsms or management in general, especially if they want you out. when i was off with osteoarthritis for months awaiting a knee op, i got a good atos report for a rehab plan and was given a date to return to work on light duties. the dom did.nt like the idea of me being off any longer so sent out a request for a face to face interview despite atos advice. i then got an amended atos report saying they felt i could return sooner than anticipated. i got onto the union who advised me to go with my original report. so this i did,,the dom didnt like this one little bit(i had DEFIED him). so when i got back to work on an 8 week rehab plan, i was approached by the dom after a week, saying he was re-referring me for a face to face with atos, so he could get a better idea of how my rehab was going to go(ha, what a lie). when i went for the face to face, the atos consultant told me my rehab had failed!!! and that i would not be able to do a delivery even with the aid of a trolley. bearing in mind, i had only been on rehab for a week, and was working inside on light duties. how could he possibly know how i would cope?? it was because he had been told to fail me and recommend ihr. his medical examination,?? he asked me to squat. he heard my knees make a grinding crunching sound and said ''no, you are not fit to do a delivery.''. as it happens, since i,ve had the op, i am struggling to cope with 4.45hr deliveries, but i,ve only been back 6 weeks after major surgery. but he was saying i was finished even before i had the op. management influence them. they finished a lad from our office, saying he was not fit to do any work. so he got ihr. then when he tried to get incapacity benefit, he was examined by,,,atos, who said you are not entitled to it because YOU ARE fit to work!! in general, they are royal mails puppets. they are most definately NOT independent.

[smelly_cat_lady]

Thanks for your comments - It's as I suspected then!! I have had a rehab plan that lasted a week then I was off sick again. During my subsequent phone call, the 'nurse' was going to recommend the exact same rehab plan that had already failed and it was a right palaver to get her to agree something else. She has suggested the OT route and said that they will either come to our office or I will have to visit one of their centres 'which is set up as a mail centre'. I'm not sure exactly how this will work or what it entails.............still, we have agreed 3hours a day, 3 days a week to start with and see how we go. Will keep you updated