USA - Docs Lie and Workers Lose

[brothermagrew]

Dr Hershel Samuels, an orthopaedic surgeon, examined a driver for a plumbing company. The driver said he had fallen, banging up his back, shoulder and ribs. He was seeking expanded workers' compensation benefits because he no longer felt he could do his job. Dr Samuels, an independent medical examiner in the New York state workers' compensation system, seemed to agree. He called out test results indicative of an injured man. His words were captured on videotape. Yet the report Dr Samuels later submitted to the New York State Workers' Compensation Board cleared the driver for work and told a far different story: no back spasms, no tender neck. In fact, no recent injury at all. This denial of injury appears to be far from rare. Independent medical exams are among the most disputed components of New York's troubled workers' compensation system. Under that system, workers with bona fide injuries are entitled to medical care and replacement wages, usually paid for by their employer's insurer. But a New York Times review of case files and medical records and interviews with participants indicate that the exam reports are routinely tilted to benefit insurers by minimising or dismissing injuries. 'You go in and sit there for a few minutes ? and out comes a six-page detailed exam that he never did,' said Dr Stephen M Levin, co-director of the occupational and environmental medicine unit at Mount Sinai Medical Center. 'There are some noble things you can do in medicine without treating. This ain't one of them.' The examiners do not need special training, only to have a state licence and to be authorised in a specialty. 'Basically if you haven't murdered anyone and you have a medical licence, you get certified,' said Dr Alan Zimmerman, 75, a Queens orthopaedic surgeon who does the exams. 'It's clearly a nice way to semi-retire.'

Source: TUC Risks

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/ ... _grph.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/nyreg ... wanted=all" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Scroll down and Play the video - A World of Hurt - The Examination

Q. Does anything like this go on in the UK?

[BELIAL]

Well there was this thing called the Hooper report about a very sick patient .It was due to report on a fixed date but then it got slipped a Mandy and when published six weeks late it's findings seemed to surprise a lot of informed people Six weeks to rewrite, thats mega

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Well there was this thing called the Hooper report about a very sick patient .It was due to report on a fixed date but then it got slipped a Mandy and when published six weeks late it's findings seemed to surprise a lot of informed people Six weeks to rewrite, thats mega

Even after that 98 "minor" ailments still had to be treated after the quack Dr Mandelson had seen the patient

[stokes11eg]

Wonder if this is the role model for ATOS?