mike shermer
Welfare Benefits Officer, Kings Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council, Kings l
Member since 23rd Jan 2004
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RE: Dept not requesting GP Factual Reports or EMP examinati...
Thu 11-Mar-04 03:08 PM |
make of this what you will, but the general direction in which one is pointed is that of the EMP - if you are DM that is ........
Taken from the DM guide ......
51.3.1 General Practitioner Factual Reports (GPFRs)
(i) A special fee payable to individual GPs has been agreed whereby factual information based on a patient's clinical records will be provided. The fee does not extend to the provision of an opinion and so, unless the information is already contained within the clinical records, the GP will not be in a position to provide it. It has to be understood that individual entries in a patient's clinical record are relatively brief and will usually concentrate on diagnosis, clinical findings and treatment plan. The records will not really contain any meaningful information relating to care and mobility needs. In general therefore GPFRs can provide useful information on the diagnosis and overall severity of a person's disabling conditions. It will not usually be appropriate to ask specific questions about the help a person requires unless there appears to be gross under-or over-representation of those in the claim pack. (ii) Where a person has a number of different conditions which are being investigated and treated by a variety of hospital departments, the GP's records will be the place where all this information is co-ordinated. In these circumstances the GP may well be able to indicate the relative importance of the various conditions in terms of their effect on the patient's day to day life.
51.3.3 Consultants Reports
It is possible to ask a consultant to examine a person and to answer specific questions relating to the care and mobility needs. However, it has to be appreciated that such reports are expensive and take a long time to complete. More importantly though, it has to be recognised that a consultant's expertise will be concentrated in the areas of diagnosis, investigation and treatment. Whilst consultants usually provide excellent information in these areas, they often do not appreciate the full significance of questions relating to care and mobility needs. Experience has shown that such questions are not answered as fully as adjudication officers would want. Consequently, the situations where a consultant's report is the most appropriate source of further evidence are likely to be few and will usually be confined to cases where the diagnosis is particularly uncommon.
51.3.4 Examining Medical Practitioner (EMP) Reports
EMPs have been given training in the discipline of disability medical analysis. Within this discipline, the diagnosis, whilst being an essential starting point, is only of secondary importance. EMPs will be able to assess what effects a person's condition is likely to have on day to day living. They will be able to provide a critical appraisal of whether a person's claimed care and mobility needs are reasonable in the light of the diagnosis and clinical severity of the particular disabling conditions. Consequently if the evidence relating to the level of needs is incomplete, inconsistent or contradictory, an EMP report is likely to be most appropriate source of further evidence to deal with these issues.
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