recorded medical

I had my WCA recorded in Leeds on 14 June this year, but it took nearly 3 months to get it. There is a Co-ordinator for the recording equipment at Atos, as this one piece of equipment is the only one used for the whole of the county of Yorkshire.

One piece of advice though, ensure that the machine stays on record throughout your WCA, as the Doctor who assessed me had a tendency to switch it off of record and continue talking and assessing without being recorded and my wife had to continue to remind him to switch it back on to record.

The approved disability analyst (ADA) should not be interfering with the recording equipment to the extent he was constantly interrupting the recording of the assessment, otherwise what was the point of having it done in the first place?

I am unaware of the outcome of your WCA, but if the ADA was turning it on and off in order to prevent vital evidence being recorded, at the very least this could result in a complaint to Atos, and in the event of an appeal (hopefully it won't be necessary), it should be drawn to the attention of the tribunal if it is not clear that the interruptions are apparent, should it be used as evidence? See:-

Complaining to ATOS Healthcare.

Leste wrote:

One piece of advice though, ensure that the machine stays on record throughout your WCA, as the Doctor who assessed me had a tendency to switch it off of record and continue talking and assessing without being recorded and my wife had to continue to remind him to switch it back on to record.

VERY interesting, Leste.

Can you tell us which bits of the assessment he was trying NOT to record or do you think that he was simply making repeated attempts to stop recording altogether?

I wonder if anyone else has had this problem, or played back their assessment recording to discover bits missing.

Perhaps those who have had a recording could check (or ask someone else to, if it would be too painful) to see if there seem to be any breaks or if it the recording stopped early.

My recording was not suspended, but there are times when my voice wasn't picked up (when I was lying on the couch behind the assessor).

I'm quite astonished that the ADA was stopping and starting the recording. We know from the Chris Grayling letter that all ADAs that use the equipment are given a copy of the instruction manual. I would have thought that they would also be given basic instructions of the procedure - when to start, stop and hand over the recording.

I would definitely make a complaint to Atos.

I'd say that was all the more reason for making your own covert backup copy.