Funny old world

[steve colborn]

The following isan article from the Sunderland Echo, Tues 6th Aug. It would appear that even medicos have fallen for the decade+ tide of propoganda, that has ensured only derisory expressed opposition to attacks on the disabled not to mention even more attacks on those on benefits as a whole.

 

Steve Colborn.

[steve colborn]

‘Everyone is capable of some kind of work’ – Sunderland GP blasts sick note culture &lt/body&gt A WEARSIDE doctor says some patients are ‘hell bent’ on trying to prove they are really ill. Dr Phil Peverley, who works at The Old Forge Surgery, Pallion Park, said he has even considered putting up a poster of Professor Stephen Hawking with the caption: ‘This bloke is not on the sick’ in the surgery.Writing a column in the medical magazine, Pulse, Dr Peverley, said: “Entire surgeries could be filled with the disgruntled unworking well, full of indignation at being considered reasonably healthy.“We are, as a profession, dedicated to making our patients as healthy as possible, and yet a proportion of punters are hell bent on trying to prove they’re really ill, and need us to confirm it.“The fact is, nearly everyone is capable of some kind of work. I had considered, at one point, putting up a portrait of Professor Stephen Hawking in my consulting room with a caption that said ‘This bloke is not on the sick’.”The renowned physicist has motor neurone disease, which has left him almost totally paralysed and he communicates using a speech-generating machine.An award-winning columnist, Dr Peverley went on to say: “Being found fit for some kind of employment by Atos (the organisation which quizzes unemployed people about their suitability to work), does not mean you’re necessarily capable of being an FBI agent or a lumberjack. However, you might be able to work at a desk on a telephone, or hold a lollipop on a zebra crossing.”He said the benefits of employment are not just financial, but include less depression, greater social contact, increased wellbeing and a decreasing tendency to addiction and social deprivation.Earlier this year, a poll of 4,000 family doctors by the Department for Work and Pensions showed three quarters feel obliged to issue sick notes to patients even when there is no medical need.Since being hired by the Government in 2008, Atos has carried out more than 1.5million assessments on people to see if they are fit for work, but it has led to more than 600,000 appeals at a cost of £60million.Richard Hawkes, CEO of disability charity, Scope, said: “Dr Peverley’s attempt at ‘telling it like it is’ misses the point entirely. Disabled people do want to work, but they need support to overcome huge barriers, such as a lack of skills and experience, confidence and even negative attitudes from some employers.”Sorry, this should have been included in the initial post. Steve Colborn.

[steve colborn]

My initial comment on this article;  peverley, quite perversely in my opinion, uses stephen hawking as his example, in his misguided hyperbole.how many people, with mr hawkings illness, can afford the "bespoke"equipment needed to continue to do work? how many people, i'll hazard a guess of a handfull at most, can understand the theories he has posited?apart from the expense of eqipment, what of the "cost" of ancilliary services that would be needed to keep this gentleman doing his, "work"?regardless, businesses run to make money! what business man would be prepared to employ a person, if in doing so, it was going to cost them money on top of the diabled persons wages, to facillitate the employment of said disabled person?it is a peculiarly cynical person who posits the ideas peverley posits, about disabled people, when in the same society they inhabit, as does he, we have a situation where 1 million fit and able-bodied under 25's are denied the oppurtunity to "earn" the money they need to have any kind of fulfilled life but rather turn the agenda towards people, many of whom have trouble merely coping with their physical and mental disabilities and attempt by the misuse of the "media" and the governments own spin-doctors, to attempt to label "all" disabled people, as workshy, feckless scroungers and dragoon them into situations they and employers, are quite obviously ill-equipped to cope with. Steve Colborn

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