Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Atos 'quacks' homophobic rant at lesbian

pirate | 01.06.2011 14:54 | Health | Public sector cuts | Repression | World

A Lesbian, with mental health problems, attending one of the Atos medicals claims the so-called doctor indulged in a homophobic rant during the assessment.



 http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/06/01/lesbian-woman-subjected-to-homophobic-rant-from-doctor-at-atos-medical-assessment/

Lesbian woman subjected to homophobic rant from doctor at Atos medical assessment
by Christopher Brocklebank for PinkNews.co.uk
1 June 2011, 11:31am


A patient with mental health problems was subjected to a homophobic outburst by her doctor (Photo: B Hernandez) A gay woman who was instructed to attend an Atos Healthcare assessment in order to assess her benefit entitlement claims she was subjected to a homophobic outburst by the doctor who examined her.

Writing in today’s Guardian, Clare Allan said that a close friend of hers who suffers from a number of mental health problems, was already in state of anxiety when she arrived for her assessment. Her friend, said Ms Allan, was unable to work and was concerned she might lose her incapacity benefit, which is soon to be replaced with employment allowance and a work capability test.

The patient claimed she was ignored by her doctor for five minutes while he worked at his computer screen. He then asked her about her current health and after disclosing she had been suffering from haemorrhoids, she was apparently “forced to sit and listen as the doctor described in graphic detail the physical damage men did to each other by having anal sex. ‘They’re everywhere!’ the doctor said. ‘They’re running the government.’ He would not allow his grandchildren to be brought up in a country run by homosexuals and paedophiles.”

Ms Allan said that her friend kept quiet about her own sexuality at this point, being stunned by the outburst. The patient was then told by her doctor that a lesbian couple had complained about him, saying that he had rejected their claim because he was homophobic: “‘I had to go to tribunal,’ he said. ‘I could have lost my job. But they found against them and they lost their benefits.’ The doctor then left the room without any explanation. Some minutes later he returned with a nurse and proceeded [with the examination].”

Atos offices across the UK were picketed by disabled people last month, and their ethics have also been questioned in the British Medical Journal.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

pirate

Comments

Hide the following comment

History of discrimination by benefit testing contractors

03.06.2011 14:14

SEMA, who used to run the Benefits Agency Medical Services (BAMS) contract before ATOS were thought to have used doctors who treated claimants badly including with a degree of racism - see the exchange from the House of Lords (24th May 2000). If you read the full evidence of the 2000 select committee report, it is clear that some of the sessional doctors eg acted as if claimants with Irish backgrounds were drunkards, were offensive to Asian claimants etc. I think a number of the sessional doctors were not top drawer - semi retired, semi employed etc.

ATOS essentially took over many of SEMA's operations and staff, afaik, so maybe surprising more allegations like this haven't surfaced yet



(From House of Lords 24th May)
“Lord Ashley of Stoke
My Lords, I am grateful for that reply. Is my noble friend aware that the Select Committee was scathing about the private medical agency, the SEMA Group, which is used by the Benefits Agency to examine sick and disabled people who claim benefit? The Select Committee accused that group of imposing on sick and disabled people unacceptable delays, painful examinations, rude treatment and racial discrimination? Is my noble friend aware that, although the recommendations of the Select Committee are welcome, in my view they are wholly inadequate and the Government need to reconsider the use of these private medical agencies and certainly should get rid of the SEMA Group which is responsible for so much distress to many sick and disabled people?
Baroness Hollis of Heigham
My Lords, the Government will publish their response to the report of the Select Committee at the end of June. My colleagues in the other place and officials are working on that response. I do not for a moment dissociate myself from some of the comments made in the report. The Government accept the criticism that some of the 3,000 part-time and sessional doctors, not so much the 250 full-time doctors who were with the original Benefits Agency Medical Service (BAMS) when it transferred over, have exhibited the behaviour described by my noble friend. It is quite clear that some doctors have been somewhat crass in their response to patients' needs. I believe that the right response to that is that advocated by the Select Committee, which is significantly to increase the training available to doctors, particularly part-time ones. After all, those doctors provide advice on about £25 billion of benefit. As a result, it is crucial that we get the most highly qualified and best trained doctors to deal with a very sensitive area of medicine. That is why the proposals made by the Select Committee in terms of improving the training of doctors, the auditing of their reports and so on are being taken seriously by government. “

Solomon Hughes
mail e-mail: solomon.hughes@btinternet.com


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech