So it was my turn to go to an ATOS medical centre and have my Work Capability Assessment for migration to Employment & Support Allowance.

I attended with a chaperone to witness and take notes.

Although at the start is was a little adversarial though professional. After the Medical Assessor & I had established each others positions. Mainly concerning the Professor Harrington review changes and that the assessors no longer make medical judgments in narrative in Addison to the Function tests and medical information gathering. It settled down to a surprising pleasant experience especially in light of what many have reported of there experience elsewhere. The Medical Assessor was professional, polite, thorough and I have no issues with the meeting. Of course having the meeting today I will not have the assessment information for a while yet.

The assessment should take 20 to 60 minutes but mine lasted 2 hours.

There were only three issues I was unhappy with and these seemed more to do with ATOS and its more general admin and questioning process than the medical assessor.

• A medical report from my GP highlighted only 3 of medical issues and in no detail. I had expressed on the forms that my GP had limited knowledge as essentially he facilitates repeat prescriptions on instruction from my various Consultants.  In additional information I had sent with my initial form to ATOS & DWP I also gave the details of my consultants, but when I last saw them no report had been requested.
• I had provided a full breakdown of my medication, what it was for and the Doctors details.  In the paperwork sent to the Medical Assessor from ATOS Medical Services this was missing. This resulted, in part, to the lengthy assessment. I asked that a note be made by the assessor of the the fact ATOS had been sent this.
• Finally and the most worrying.  I was asked "How did you get HIV?".  I said I wasn't happy to answer that question as it was irrelevant to the assessment, could lead to prejudicial or discriminatory decision making and was very stigmatising.  The Medical Assessor said they would not ask anyone else the question, inform colleagues and dealt with my issue with care. I therefore had the feeling that this was more to do with the claimant question protocols than just one assessor.  Of course I will be chasing this up to ensure that ATOS no longer ask this.

I must repeat. I know that others have different experiences here. This is just mine.