Joint Response by DPAC and Black Triangle on Dr Phil Peverley’s Comments in Pulse Republished in The Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph
This post is in response to the following articles:
Dr Peverley’s original rallying cry in the Pulse was that he did not want to sign ‘sick notes: ‘Save me from the unworking well’
Reported in The Telegraph
The Daily Mail:
‘THIS bloke is not on the sick! Angry GP cites Hawking to shame hordes of patients asking him to sign them off’
JOINT STATEMENT
DPAC and Black Triangle condemn the misguided, insensitive, inflammatory and defamatory comments of Dr Phil Peverley.
We also want to condemn the pitch and severity of the pieces in the Mail and Telegraph (2nd August) framing Peverley’s comments, as a further outrageous abuse of the facts and issues affecting disabled people and those with diagnosed long term health issues.
Peverley’s words are an insult to all those that suffer the misery and anxiety of Atos within the regime designed to remove support from disabled people. His words are an insult to those that have died shortly after being declared ‘fit for work’ or before an appeal which found that, once again, Atos were wrong-something that happens with increasing regularly in a system that is chaotic and unworkable.
Those people may also have been within the so-called ‘proportion of punters’ that Peverley claims ‘are hell-bent on trying to prove they’re really ill, and need us [GPS] to confirm it’ or maybe they were some of the perceived ‘disgruntled unworking well’ who are ‘full of indignation at being considered reasonably healthy.’ The Department of Works and Pensions DWP own figures show deaths within 6 weeks of tests were at over 10,000. The DWP are refusing to publish up –to date statistics, so we would guess that these figures have risen significantly.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Black Triangle on the 28th June 2012 the British Medical Association (BMA) supported a call to demand that the WCA should be ended ‘with immediate effect and be replaced with a rigorous and safe system that does not cause unavoidable harm.’
Peverley, on the other hand, thinks Atos are doing a great job – despite new evidence everyday that they clearly are not, despite MPs, journalists, and the public accounts committee condemnation of their conduct and the multi-million Atos contract (See Dr Margaret McCartney’s piece in the British Medical Journal and Black Triangle’s’ 2013 letter of support from Doctors, Trade Union general secretaries and civil society).
Remarkably, Peverley declared that he considered putting a picture of Stephen Hawkings in his surgery with the caption: ‘This bloke is not on the sick!’
The comparison of Professor Hawking to every single disabled person is beyond bizarre.
As Dr McCartney has put it with regard to Atos’ sponsorship of the 2012 Paralympics:
‘I’m worried about Atos view of ‘disability’.
‘I’m worried that they somehow think that all people with disabilities somehow have an elite athlete inside them.
‘The truth is that some people are physically different and it is society that disables them; there are some disabled people who are phenomenal athletes, and there are some people who are so sick or disabled that they can’t work.
‘Atos has made many disabled peoples’ lives miserable, and it would have been far better had they put their sponsorship money into making their system fairer.
‘If there is a legacy from the Paralympics, I hope a small part of that will be considering how fairly we treat sick people when they are most vulnerable – currently, Atos is failing us all.’
Professor Hawking is a man with the funds to ensure a network of P.A. support, home adaptations and technical aids – something far out of the reach of the majority of disabled people – where even a basic level of support is becoming increasingly unlikely in the current slash and burn climate.
Hawkings won’t miss his ILF payments if the appeal hearing against the DWP doesn’t produce the correct verdict.
Hawkings won’t need to worry about local authority cuts or the tsunami of other cuts, caps, punitive costs, sanctions and penalties being imposed on disabled people and other low income people by this Government.
In Sept 2012 the BMA also said that GPs workloads had massively increased due to the chaotic system of the WCA and increasing numbers of appeals. Peverley also says:
‘These fitness-to-work assessments – under Atos, and under anyone who takes the role for that matter – generate a massive amount of work in general practice’
in his column in the Pulse. However, neither the Mail nor the Telegraph wanted to pick up on the increased workloads the Atos/WCA system is causing for GPs.
None wanted to mention that people can now be charged up to 200 pounds for GP reports, to support them in an assessment, or that GPs increasingly refuse to supply reports either – a further hurdle for disabled people and those with debilitating long term health issues in the attempt to gain the support they need in the punitive assessment process.
The Mail and Telegraph both carried the comments of Peverley. True – they’re both right wing newspapers and tools of Tory propaganda. Yet, the pitch and severity of both pieces in framing Peverley’s comments was a clear abuse of the facts and issues facing disabled people; as are Peverly’s inflammatory comments.
Peverley’s original Pulse piece fits the welfare ‘reform’ agenda perfectly.
An agenda that incorporates the right wing media and Governments constant demonising of disabled people as feckless/workshy/scroungers – Peverley’s original rallying cry in the Pulse was that he did not want to sign ‘sick notes.
The piece headlined: ‘Save me from the unworking well’ was posted on the 29th July. Neither the Mail nor the Telegraph showed the same eagerness to publish his jaunty column of 25th April ‘A Curious Case of Missing Sick Notes’ which talks about the constant losing of sick notes by the DWP. But why would they?
Let’s have 100% ‘fit to work’ even if a 100% drop dead in the process!
Meanwhile, for those that can afford it like Professor Hawkings and other upper-middle class citizens there’s always the Unum ‘back-up plan’.
In the meantime Peverley has been reported to the GMC. Twitter @gmcuk
There is a facebook campaign group at Respect For the Unemployed & Benefit Claimants: facebook.com/permalink.php?…
Peverley is on twitter @PhilPeverley Please remain polite and courteous at all times while expressing your legitimate concerns and criticisms! We must not bring ourselves into disrepute!
His surgery address for letters is at the link below – please do not use the surgery telephone lines!
Dr Phil Peverley
Old Forge Surgery
Pallion Park
Pallion
Sunderland, SR4 6QE
To Protest against this and the other attacks on disabled people join DPAC’s 7 days of Action http://dpac.uk.net/2013/07/reclaiming-our-futures-7-days-of-action/
DPAC twitter: @dis_ppl_protest
Black Triangle twitter: @blacktriangle1
Also from the wit: Red mist over black humour
GP defends column describing older people as ‘senile old gits’
-
Helene Mulholland The Guardian,
Its intention may have been satirical, but older people’s charities have reacted with fury over a recent magazine column penned by a Sunderland GP in which he describes elderly patients as “crumbly, senile old gits”.
Rick B @TenPercent
4th August 2013 from TwitLonger
@Dis_PPL_Protest @AnitaBellows12 @Hossylass @suey2y @edwinmandella @clarercgp @chocolatewig@blacktriangle1 bottom line: in law the offence is tested as does the person feel discriminated against, I can categorically state that his views made me feel discriminated against. I felt if I were his patient I would not get adequate care because he is prejudice against people with disabilities and especially if those disabilities meant they had to be involved with the social security system because they were not independently wealthy or could not earn enough to live, hence both class/status based bigotry and ableism. I would suspect if his patients were surveyed we may indeed find evidence of poor treatment and even malpractice. This is not different to a doctor expressing racist views and then questioning if people of colour would receive equal treatment from that doctor.
This Doctor’s views are very worrying-how many other GPs are like this? My GP suddenly stopped giving me help towards my appeal, and produced one of those standard bs letterswhich state that it isn’t appropraite to ask for supportive statements etc.
It makes me worry if she’s gone over to the dark side.
“Appropraite”,that’s a good vague term,isn’t it?
Only surprised Britain’s answer to Der Sturmer, the repugnant Daily Express, missed out on this story. Not like them to forego an opportunity to stick the boot into claimants.
I am struggling with the idea that I may in-fact be a scrounger. I’ve been told so many times that’s what I am, via press, DWP, IDS, Esther McVey etal, I kind of believe it now…When I explain my reasons, That I have MS, When I was well and before I worked, had my own mortgage It means nothing.
I found my ex hanging dead in my home and have since had to move into social housing with Depression and PTSD and worsening MS..
How can anyone who doesn’t have these illnesses possibly know how difficult it is to find work, stay in work, or work enough to pay the bills..
All I have experienced is hate, judgement, and an increasingly hostile general public.
I cannot make it better, it will not get better. And without support, empathy and understanding there really is no reason to continue.
I have a back up plan because I am fast losing the strength to survive
I am the shell of the person I was, not because of my illness but for becoming so despised.
PLEASE, DONT LET THEM WIN…
i think about immigrating… because it could come to civil war here… it is isns all but name… this country is divided.. that is clear…but never let them win! this is a brilliant organisation..i feel need to help black triangle somehow… dont know how…remember we dont all think the same… they want to label us all “scroungers” we must all be determined to smash this government and send them back to the evil one from which they emerged.
I am flabbergasted by this Doctors comments. I to had a Dr with a very similar attitude looking after me in the early days. I blame her for the misleading information she gave to the Dwp when she complated my forms for my claim. She did not refer to my consultants letter that described how ill I was. No One wants to live the lives many of us have when we are diagnosed with a long term illness. I would swap my life with anyone today if it meant I could return to work. It is humiliating enough being tested to the lmits on how ill you really are. You even question yourself until you havge one of your bad days then you realise you are ill and not swining the lead as this Dr seems to think we are. I stupidly always thought there was a safety net out there that when you were ill you could go to the DWP and get paid sick pay or ESA and that it was that simple. But it isn’t is it. Your put in front of someone that has no idea about your day to day living. They aren’t experts on your illness or diability you are. I was torn apart at my tribunal for DLA because my Dr couldn’t be bothered to read the notes from my consultant and judge it on how my heart was working. I lost a whole years DLA because of her syupidity and I am angry. I am angry but whats the point no one will change it. I don’t know how the sytem can be changed but I do know many people are loosing vital benefits because of idiots which include some Dr’s.
Thank goodness I don’t have this creature for a ‘gp’ humanity cannot be taught its something we feel within..
I’m so grateful to my GP Dr I….. he has been incredible over the past five or six years, he supported me through many illnesses and significant life events, I can honestly say I would have been lost without him, his view of the DWP and ATOS is at the other end of the scale, so much so he doesn’t charge me for letters or evidence provided…
I’ve had prescriptions within minutes as I’m on such a high dose I’d be quite ill if I didn’t have them, moreover I remember approaching my GP when my partner had become difficult and I was given half an hour of his time without an appointment…
In these times of cuts and hardship created by the Tories people like me need as much help as possible, but to them I’m the ultimate benefits claimant, not only do I have a disability but I’m also a lone parent…
No one can ever truly be happy in life by bullying and demonising others, I’m a good person, my conscience is clear….
“Those people may also have been within the so-called ‘proportion of punters’ that Peverley claims ‘are hell-bent on trying to prove they’re really ill, and need us [GPS] to confirm it’”
Yeah, I suspected there was something “different” about me for years, from mental health issues to trying to describe back pain that went from “can’t stand up for long” to “can’t wipe my own ass because of the pain”.
It turns out I had Aspergers Syndrome, but I only heard about Aspergers by chance at the age of 40, and it took me a further 3 years of trying to push the GP for a diagnosis / get the local PCT to arrange one, before it all fell into place.
Even then it wasn’t my GP’s doing, I started asking the local PALS team awkward questions about what the diagnosic pathway was for adults – the one the government said they should have in place…
Add to that an eventual diagnosis of Chronic Pain Syndrome after more than 18 years on strong painkillers (mainly dihydrocodeine) and things are finally starting to come together.
Perhaps with a GP like Peverley I’d just be classed as a time-waster. He sounds as useful as my previous GP who said of my fragile mental health, “if you think you’re going mad, you’re not mad”. Even my current GP asked “what would it achieve” when I was trying to get an adult assessment for Aspergers.
thats funny i 2 have aspergers,
i did not find out till i was 40 when i saw a dss doctor 10 years ago that that was likely so i did the on line tests and past them all .. jeff .. lph
“At the time of being admitted as a member of the medical profession:
• I solemnly pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity;
• I will give to my teachers the respect and gratitude that is their due;
• I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity;
• The health of my patient will be my first consideration;
• I will respect the secrets that are confided in me, even after the patient has died;
• I will maintain by all the means in my power, the honour and the noble traditions of the medical profession;
• My colleagues will be my sisters and brothers;
• I will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient;
• I will maintain the utmost respect for human life;
• I will not use my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat;
• I make these promises solemnly, freely and upon my honour.” Wikipedia
Where does it say, I will judge all those waiting to be seen as fit for work before even seeing them?
How is it dignified to write politically motivated articles for the right wing press to use against the vulnerable, and considering the well documented cases of suicide and at least 10,000 die within six weeks of being assessed by Atos, how helpful did he think it would be for his patients health?
Clearly, he is in the wrong job, and should be doing something more appropriate, possibly a little easier than Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, something to do with insurance perhaps.
I can’t imagine why anybody from a poor background would ever want him as their doctor.
Cleverley’s surgery has toilet facilities that include a BIG SHITHOUSE……………………………
I really am at a loss with whats going on here. i for one have 26 different ailments, conditions, some disabling some not.(i counted them after becoming overwhelmed and depressed last year at all the medical things being thrown at me. most of them over the past 6 years.was shocked at the number. ranging from minor to major. over the last 30 years,most tho as i say from the past 6 years.)some i have good days ,some i have bad days. each one of those conditions, ailments, disabilities..whatever name you choose to put to them have been diagnosed by one GP or another in 3 different practices ive used due to house moves …no other reason. i have not, nor have i ever or will, diagnosed myself at any time. in some instances i have only the GPs word that i have this,that or the other, in others i have my symptoms which tell me they are right. diabetes for instance…i have no symptoms yet they tell me i am type 2. mild.
as most patients are in this situation how can that stupid doctor conclude what he has concluded????
I too have never diagnosed myself. One condition I have complex regional pain syndrome/CRPS was diagnosed first as an ankle sprain, then as fibromyalgia, then as Charcot’s foot (a condition caused by diabetes) and then only finally diagnosed properly in hospital by the local rheumatology department as CRPS over 8 years later. I must admit my present (LADY) GP is very good and supportive- so maybe Peverley’s attitude is that of a MCP?
A GP stressed & stressed out on addictive pills he don`t really need, makes silly comments. GP`s that are addicted to addictive pills should be struck off.
I feel totally disgusted by doctor phil peverley in his comments..i live not far from sunderland..for a doctor he is shameful towards genuine disabled people as of myself ..i was diagnosed with bilateral talipes valgus equinos from bith there is no cure ..i also was diagnosed profoundly deaf from infancy ..i also was diagnosed ealy last year with muscular skeltal dysplaysia ..diabetis type 2 7years ago ..regressive rheumatiod arthritis from infancy..peripheral vascular disease..stage three kidney failure..would this doctor phil peverley say i was dreaming or making my diagnosis up..this doctor should be struck off for misconduct on his patients or misdiagnosis of a persons health the BMA should sadly question him on his ethics as a doctor..people whom ARE disabled and sick do require medical records especially hospital records to support there cases and so called medicals for assessment with ATOS.. too many people have been pushed through the system badly something as far as i am concerned is not right with all these assessment with atos and DWP.
Peverley must be regretting his article.
What is puzzling is there are no comments from Mackems. Maybe his patients respect him?
Completely UnWorthy of the Title of Doctor
Doctors are Supposed to Care
He should be Dismissed
Enough of this Bloody Cuckooland and Stuff that so called
” Newspaper ” the Daily Moron
On a Par with the Nazi Persecution of the Poor and Vulnerable
The Past 3 Years since Dawn of the Dipsticks May 11th 2010
I think this so called “doctor” should be very ashamed of himself and remember his hippocratic oath which states do no harm, the harm he has caused to the disabled people of this country is criminal. I suppose if my husband who has Degenerative Disc Disease (which is from his neck to the base of his spine),was a patient of his he would say that he was a malingerer as you can’t see this disease, but he should have to put up with the pain 24/7 which my husband has. If he had any of the disabilities described on this page then he would no doubt be amongst the first to be asking his GP to sign his sick note. I do not wish anyone ill but he should be.