Health forms are 'doctored', claim

Jul 30 2003

Disabled people in Birmingham are seeking legal action after claiming that officials doctored assessment forms to justify increasing charges for day care centres. Members of Service Users Against Charges say the council committed a catalogue of errors while assessing thousands of disabled people for the Fairer Charges scheme. In one case a blind woman was asked to put her signature on a form and claims she didn’t realise what she was signing up for. Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield Andrew Mitchell today called for an urgent inquiry into the council’s handling of scheme. “These are extremely serious allegations and need to be investigated as a matter of urgency,” he said. And law firm Hossacks confirmed that legal action could be launched on the grounds that the assessments were carried out “unfairly, irrationally and unlawfully”. Story continues ADVERTISEMENT Blind mother-of-three Ross Robertson was assessed last week to find out how much she would have to pay under the new charging system. Mrs Robertson, aged 49, of Sutton Coldfield, said: “I went into a room with a woman and she asked me a list of questions. “Then I had to sign a form. I didn’t even know what I was signing up.” Maureen Parker, spokeswoman for Service Users Against Charges, said: “We believe that the forms are being tampered with by the council.” A spokeswoman for Birmingham City Council said: “The assessment process was carried out in line with extensive Government guidelines. “We have been informed that if the forms were altered, they were altered in the presence of the service user.”

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