§ Mr. FitzpatrickTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what action is being taken by his Department to monitor the quality of advice given by SEMA Medical Service doctors about the awarding of Incapacity Benefit on the basis of scrutiny of documents without commissioning a medical examination. [118800]
§ Mr. BayleyIn February 1999, new guidelines for doctors undertaking scrutiny were produced by SEMA Medical Services and the Department's Chief Medical Adviser.
A recent survey by the Department's Medical Policy Group has shown that some Medical Services doctors are not following the scrutiny guidelines which means that some Incapacity Benefit awards may have been made incorrectly.
The Benefits Agency has written to SEMA Group's Director of Medical Services to instruct Medical Services to take corrective action immediately to ensure compliance with the medical quality standards specified in the contract.
SEMA has also been informed that the Department's Chief Medical Adviser will be carrying out further audits of the scrutiny process, to ensure that advice to award Incapacity Benefit on the basis of scrutiny, without medical examination, is given only where there is sufficient medical evidence already on file to justify it.
In addition, the Chief Medical Adviser's Medical Quality Surveillance Group is making arrangements for a joint audit, with Medical Services, of the standard of each individual doctor undertaking scrutiny. This exercise will begin next month.
Medical Services, through their own medical quality monitoring procedures, already identified some doctors who are not following the scrutiny guidelines and have instituted remedial training for them.