Congress roundly condemned the conduct
of Atos Healthcare and its target driven
approach to assessing entitlement to
benefits for those with disabilities,
now outsourced to SALUS.
The STUC will
seek clarification on the governance
of the SALUS contract and will monitor
the impact of their assessments on people
with disabilities.
Congress also noted that Atos is one
of the sponsors of the 2014 Commonwealth
Games in Glasgow and the STUC will call
on the Glasgow 2014 organisers and the
Glasgow City Labour Group to cancel the
Atos sponsorship.
UNISON’s John Nisbet explained
that Atos perform what they call assessments
of ill and disabled people to see if
they qualify for benefits, but not by
some sort of “old fashioned” medical
examination. “Instead,” said
John, “they have a set of questions,
the answers to which are fed into a computer
which makes an automatic assessment.
“They ask questions like - Do you look
after your own pets? Because clearly
if you’re able to feed the budgie
then you can do a shift as a hod carrier.
“Congress I’m not saying
that these assessments are unrealistic,” joked
John, “But they’ve declared Margaret Thatcher fit for work.”
John
apologised if people thought his joke was in bad taste, and said that the
Daily Mail would no doubt consider it
outrageous, but then told Congress
about
Larry Newman.
“He went to an ATOS Assesment,” said John.” He could hardly
breathe at the time because he had a terminal lung disease – and he took
along his medical records to show that.
“But ATOS ignored them and using their own system decided he wasn’t
eligible for benefits.
“A few weeks later when he was admitted to hospital, and being attached
to the ventilator he’d be on for the few weeks of life left to him he turned
to his wife and said, “Still - at least I’m fit for work”
“Congress it’s a system that can do that to a human being that is
in bad taste. It’s a system that can do that a human being that is an outrage!”
John slammed the Daily Mail and other
elements of the press who have run a
disgraceful campaign of misrepresentation
and vilification
of ill and
disabled people, but
congratulated papers like the Daily Mirror and the Morning Star
which have tried to expose this scandal.
" Atos are trying to pass themselves
off as reasonable corporate citizens
by associating
themselves with the Commonwealth Games
but in reality this is
a company that
makes it money from the infliction of pain.
“Congress – there’s no need to dress it up. This just shouldn’t
be allowed,” said John, calling on the Scottish Government
and the Games organisers to bin ATOS as sponsors “so we can
have a Commonwealth Games we can all be proud of.”
18 April 2013
