GPs struggle to cope with 21% rise in requests to verify work capability since January

GPs are having to cope with rising levels of paperwork under the Government’s drive to reduce the benefits bill, with figures obtained by Pulse showing the number of requests to verify claimants’ ability to work have increased by over a fifth since the beginning of this year.

The figures show that the national crackdown on benefits has resulted in practices having to cope with increasing numbers of forms to support Employment Support Allowance (ESA) claims, which GPs say can take up to an hour of their time to fill out.

In 2008, there were 6,640 requests for information.

In 2012, there were 448,800 requests for information.

In the first three months of 2013, there were 136,000 ESA requests to medical professionals on behalf of the Government. This extrapolated across the whole year would total over 544,250 requests for the year, representing a 21% increase in ESA compared with 2012.

……The Workplace Capability Assessments, which the Government uses to decides on whether people are eligible for the ESA, have also been criticised by the BMA, MPs and charities, as 38% of decisions are overturned at the appeal stage. Last year a committee of MPs said the assessments have a ‘disproportionate effect’ on the vulnerable.

Dr Nigel Watson, chief executive of Wessex LMCs said GP feedback into the process was important, but that the forms could take from 15 minutes to an hour and this was having a disproportionate impact on the time GPs could spend with patients.

He said: ‘We are spending more time on admin and paperwork and this is going to increase. With the increasing complexity of long term conditions, and patients working longer, not retiring at 60. Now the forms are more complex. It’s not only that you have more forms to fill in – its more complicated to fill in these forms.’

He added: ‘It adds to the other pressure that GPs are facing. If you spend more times filling in forms then you spend less time looking after patients – the time has to come from somewhere.’

taken from ‘Pulse magazine, By Madlen Davies, 17th June 2013. Read the full article here: http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/20003646.article#.Uebz6219ak8