The Social Care Minister says he is ‘completely comfortable’ with fitness to work tests being conducted on benefit claimants by Atos – despite concerns raised by a former employee in the UK.
Atos Healthcare was brought in on a trial last year to carry out medical assessments on long-term incapacity benefit claimants.
Social Care Minister Chris Robertshaw revealed in November that nearly 70 per cent of claimants have had their payments stopped following the assessments.
In the UK, there have been continuing concerns about the methods used by Atos.
And last week former Atos assessor Dr Greg Wood told how he resigned from the company after two-and-a-half years, claiming the system was ‘skewed’. He alleged claimants were not assessed in an ‘even-handed way’ and medical staff were told to change reports if they were too favourable.
But Atos denied it acted inappropriately or unethically. It said it does not have targets for getting people off benefits and never asks assessors to make changes to a report unless there are specific clinical quality issues.
Mr Robertshaw said he had been ‘extremely impressed’ by the professionalism of the Atos Healthcare doctors whom he said were ‘eminently qualified’.
He said Dr Wood’s concerns relate to his interpretation of the assessment process adopted by the UK government, which was a matter for them.
‘I am completely comfortable with the way my department has conducted itself, and am very satisfied the concerns Dr Wood has expressed don’t relate to the application of the assessment process in the island.’
