I have just lost my DLA benefit due to my doctor filling in my Factual Report for Disability Living Allowance with the completely wrong information, even saying I dont take any medication for my MS, and have never had a relapse.
I have been on Interferon DMT injections since April 2006, and I’m on these for life, and had a relpase last July 2012.
Please, can someone tell me if I can take legal action against my surgery for such incompetance.
I have applied for a tribunal which will take months.
Thats terrible how on earth could the surgery put the wrong information down. Was your dla being reviewed and if so have you asked for a reconsideration and get your doctors to send in a letter correcting their errors. Usually a tribunal would be if the reconsideration failed. Not sure h ow you would stand legally as regards action against the surgery. How long have you been in receipt of your benefit, unless of course it’s your first attempt at claiming dla, i
That is apalling,but has the surgery admitted in writing that they made the mistake?If they have,then I’d like to think that’ll make things easier.If they haven’t and don’t intend to,you need to tell them you are going to shout from the roof tops.God forbid you end up suffering financial hardship, but if so should make copies of anything from your bank,or organisations which are charging you for any ‘financial hiccups’.
Good luck,
Wb
It strikes me there is a possibility the surgery didn’t know these things, because they are not the prescriber of DMDs, and not necessarily the point of contact for reporting relapses, either. Presumably, they would only have on record whatever the hospital has told them. If that happened to be “none of it”, it would hardly be the surgery’s fault.
Tina
And do not forget to contact PALS for the PCT you come under!
The PCT will not be there for much longer (but a Commissioning Committee will replace them), and it could be a good thing to have this “error” on record.
It sound like you need to think about changing your GP unless the surgery has admitted an error (like Wb points to above).
Appeal now. And, make the error a keystone of the appeal - point out that you are acting against the surgery for the error.
There is some good advice in the posts above - please do take it.
Geoff
Thanks for all the advice.
Have sent my appeal off to the DLA today, and sent a complaint to my GP’s surgery.
My consultant secretary confirmed to me today that everytime I see my consultant, they send a letter detailing my current physical condition, medication and future prognosis to my Surgery for the attention of my GP.
So the questions are
Why did he complete the forms without consulting my records
Why did he complete the forms guessing the answers
Spoke to a lady a DIAL and she believes he has been negligent in his duty of care towards me.
Important note… the Disability Law Service were useless.
Hi Ghostdancing
Your consultant should also send you a copy of the letter to the GP. If you do not get these, another chat to the secretary is indicated - ask for copies of the last three letters. Don’t be fobbed off, it is a basic right that you have in the NHS Constitution, and it could be good if you can send a photocopy on to the DLA.
Just a thought - could your GP have looked at the record for someone else with the same name? That might account for some of the bad information.
Geoff
Hi Doctor Geoff
Think you misread or did not understand, my consultant’s secretary has already said that everytime I see my consultant, they send a letter detailing my current physical condition, medication and future prognosis to my Surgery for the attention of my GP. My consultant and and his secretary are great, and I trust what they have told me, they have no fault in this at all.
Your idea that ‘could your GP have looked at the record for someone else with the same name?’ … to make this mistake on a legally binding form is negligent in his duty of care towards me. We just want help now taking legal action against the surgery.
Sorry Anitra, looks as if your comment below is mistaken, but thanks for your opinion.
Everytime I see my consultant, they send a letter detailing my current physical condition, medication and future prognosis to my Surgery for the attention of my GP. Have done since 2005.
I think, Ghostdancing, you have not quite taken on board the way things work.
My question about whether YOU have had a copy of the consultants letter stands. What usually happens is that the letter (yes, the actual thing on real paper) is scanned in the surgery, and a copy of the scan is attached to your records. The letter will almost certainly set out what medication the consultant has set up for you, but now we come to Tina’s point - it is the hospital that writes the prescription for a DMD, and it will not appear on your normal record on the surgery computer. To find this detail, your GP will have to read every attached letter - and it sounds like yours did not want to give the matter that much time.
Hence, my question as to whether YOU have had a copy is important - because if you have, then you have proof that the surgery knew about your DMD and any relapse. If you have a copy then you hold the proof in your hand.
The latest NHS “Initiative” to have the records for each one of us on one single computer system will, if enough people stay opted in, mean that any health service professional, anywhere in the ountry, will be able to see our complete records, MRI results, medications etc. This is not the case at present.
I do not know the circumstances of your relapse, but unless your GP was directly involved, any letter would have been dealt with as described above. If, say, the consultant or an MS Nurse, asked your GP to prescribe oral steroids, then it certainly should appear on the main surgery computer record - if you went into the hospital for IV steroids, then we are back to the scanned letter again.
None of this is any excuse for a GP who has failed to check properly, but it may just explain how it could happen.
Geoff
I think that what is left of the DIAL network is “run” by Scope (formerly the National Spastics Society). On their map, using my own postcode, I can only find two locations - North Dorset, and Bristol. However, searching from a different postcode pulled up quite a lot more. But, they are supposed to be just advisory.
I would have thought that a call to the relevant PALS would have been more productive.
Geoff
[/quote] Hello, how did you get hold of DIAL as they don’t exist any more. They closed months ago? I can’t find a DIAL. Pat[/quote]
Hi Pat… DIAL is still very much going for me where I live… website is http://www.scope.org.uk/dial and the number I called and spoke to a very understanding lady was 0808 800 3333.