§ Mr. Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to ensure that examining medical practitioners and adjudicating officers of the Disability Benefits Unit of the Benefits Agency consult the records of the family doctor and relevant consultant when assessing the claim of an applicant suffering from Guillain-Barré syndrome. [122628]
§ Mr. BayleyThe decision makers from the Disability Benefits Unit of the Benefits Agency have access to guidance in the Disability Handbook. This is written by the Department's Medical Policy Group and contains guidance on the care and mobility needs likely to arise from a range of medical conditions. It contains a specific section on Guillain-Barré syndrome which indicates that a factual report from the relevant hospital is likely to be important in establishing the severity of the condition. For this particular disease, the hospital is likely to be able to provide more relevant information than that normally contained in family doctor records. The examining medical practitioners also have access to this guidance. However, their role is usually to provide an independent professional assessment of the care and mobility needs and they are unlikely to need to have access to information from the claimant's medical records for this particular purpose in this particular type of case.