PIP Doctor's Medical Form Question!

After about 9 years of serious illnesses and about a year of lurking in this forum, a few days ago I took the plunge and applied for PIP for the very first time.

I have a number of medical conditions, each with their own impact on my life and care needs. I regularly see a number of different specialists, in close to 5 different hospitals for my medical care. The GP gets reports from all of them of course, but when I went to ask about PIP my lovely, regular GP informed me she could not fill the medical form herself as the surgery nominates a particular doctor a week to fill in all forms and it works in a rota so no one knows who will fill it in at this point.

Over the past year I've sometimes gone to a private GP for some of the slightly urgent things re cultures etc that my immunology specialists were asking for and the out of hours GPs just do not do routinely. I contacted the private GP after the conversation with the surgery and he said he would be more than happy to fill in the medical form the DWP send out instead of the NHS GP that's nominated that week filling it out. Incredibly he would charge less for this than the NHS surgery would.

My question I guess is, is that something that is done? Can I nominate a private doctor as the doctor best suited to answer medical questions re PIP or will it go automatically to my NHS GP regardless? If so, how do I work around this issue with rotas and not knowing which GP will fill the forms in et cetera so I can fill someone out on what my care needs actually are and what a good, so so and bad day is for me et cetera care-wise?

I hope all that makes sense! Thanks for reading!

Zoe

As long as your private GP supplies the completed form with all details requested concerning his status it shouldn't make any difference to the DWP.
By status I mean professional qualifications etc. they may ask how long he has been seeing you but as long as he is confident he can answer the queries and provide full information they are requiring I don't see it as being a problem.

Foss27, thanks very much for reading and responding!

Aaah, yes! He has full professional qualifications and actually is both an NHS GP and a private one. I've just happened to see him in his capacity as a private one. Brilliant that's great to know, thanks!

Can I also ask, will the DWP contact ALL physicians involved in my care or just some of them or whoever they pick or...? Is there a specific way this works? It's just, some consultants I see for things that are illnesses but do not contribute to care needs and others I see for things that do and I'd like to know who might be contacted to know who I should alert to the fact that I've applied etc.

Thanks again!

Zoe

The DWP may not contact anyone and just go by the information you submit.
Although it sounds complicated you may consider which consultants you think support the answers you give to the questions on the form and whether it is something that would benefit from supporting evidence or whether you can put enough info on the claim yourself.

Foss27 many thanks for that!

I can't believe it! They may not contact anyone?! That's surreal! I mean I intend to include a lot of medical reports when I submit the forms, but I always thought there was a set process re which physicians/consultants they contact and what they're looking for et cetera.

I don't know which physicians support the answers I'll give on the form to be honest, as I never go into care needs with physicians during appointments. We go into a lot of medical stuff vs care stuff, so for example they have no idea what my day is like or who does what for me in the house. Having said that I do sometimes mention in medical appointments that ok when x is bad that means I'm confined to bed or seriously unwell, but it's more of a medical comment than a care one if that makes sense. I mean for the GP I wrote a list of what I can do on my best day, a medium day and a bad one and what the issues are but I wouldn't see all my consultants within the next two months to discuss said list or go over it with them... I wonder what other people do!

Many thanks for your help in clarifying things!

Zoe

Good luck.

The WCA is a seriously flawed test. Thats why there is so much opposition and appeals against decisions. It is designed to reduce the number of claimants. It is a tickbox form. The DWP are going to be getting 2000 a day supposedly. How much time do you think they will spend on each one? The WCA assessors are under constant pressure to complete tests and submit reports. They won't bother getting any information other than what you supply. Thats why this site exists. To make sure you've got the best chance of a fair result by helping you fill in the forms correctly with as much detail as possible.
Good luck again