From the gentleman who tied himself to railings outside a jobcentre and set fire to himself (link = http://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/news/10360733.Benefits_withdrawal_led_to_man___s_suicide/) , to the farmer who shot himself (link = https://welfaretales.wordpress.com/category/death-after-fit-to-work-decision/) to a partially sighted & suffered from mental health problems there is a record of people who are committing suicide because of cuts and sanctions to benefits.
Many (*1) bloggers, websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds are people keeping track of those people who are in such dire circumstances that they are taking their own lives because of cuts and sanctions to benefits.
Just a few of the hundreds of sites, pages and media mentions to highlight the effects of the direct cuts to disability benefits (they are not reforms they are cuts)
It is obvious how bad things are when (*2) Job Centre managers warn staff of suicide risks among those that are/will be affected by these cuts.
It doesn’t matter what the likes of Iain Duncan Smith, Esther McVey, David Cameron, George Osborne or Mike Penning say, the truth is that the cruel cuts and sanction regime that the Conservative AND Lib Dems have brought in people are taking their own lives. And not just one or two people but many.
The GMC seem more concerned about the (*3) suicides of doctors rather than the suicides of disabled people and I can not understand why disabled people are seen as lesser people.
There were warnings to the GMC about the assessments which Atos carried out, they came from individuals, bloggers, campaign groups etc yet still- despite what the GMC have stated (*4) “The first duty of all doctors is ‘to make the care of your patient your first concern’. But that is not the only duty doctors must observe. Being open and honest and acting with integrity is also an essential part of medical professionalism" their members did as Atos and the DWP told them regarding the flawed assessments and helped remove benefits and allowances from disabled people who then went on to commit suicide or died shortly after being passed as ‘fit for work’.
This isn’t acting with integrity and honesty, it was purely mercenary because Atos paid them well for the damage they did to disabled and sick people.
It has been shown that (*5) suicides increase under a Conservative government, this latest one seems intent on driving the more vulnerable off the planet via suicide or removing them from the benefit system by sanctions and making them homeless (bedroom tax)
The GMC knew that suicides were occurring because of benefit cuts and sanctions. It has been (and probably still is being) contacted regarding this matter yet it fails to acknowledge or take responsibility for being complicit in these suicides.
When people are saying:
“I’m feel so drained and tired, and last weekend I attempted suicide. I have lost everything, including my dignity as a human being. Next month I will probably be living on the streets”
“I also recorded the 'medical' and told the 'doctor' after it that I had done so. They are also threatening me about that. I only done it as I want to send the recording to a newspaper if I decide to commit suicide over being bullied off 'the sick' by these Nazis. I can't fucking take it any more”
“I was worried I would do something silly to be sectioned and put in hospital. I was almost suicidal"
"i am beginning [sic] to think that my wife and kids would be better without me"
“David Cameron has betrayed disabled people and carers and spat on the memory of his late son Ivan”“
then the GMC should realise something is very, very wrong with the system and come out fighting for the most vulnerable people in society. Instead carers- like myself, are left to try to protect or pick up the pieces of the person we ‘care for’, as if we don’t have enough on our plates anyway!
The GMC needs to focus on the damage that has and is being done to the lives of disabled people, when they get to such a dark low place that they think the only relief from the constant attacks and lies of the coalition government is to:
Hang themselves
Drown themselves
Take an overdose of medication
Shoot themselves
something has to be done to save any future deaths, and they are deaths of people who are teenagers to pensioners. Those that have died needlessly should be the catalyst to ensure there are no more deaths or suicides.
Mr Iain Duncan Smith has proved that he doesn’t care less how many disabled people die as long as his reforms (cuts in reality) go through. Some people are saying between 32 and 73 people a week are dying after being classed as “fit for work”. He has constantly ignored deaths and suicides of disabled people as if they don’t exist, well they do but he hides the figures and then insists his “beliefs” are more accurate than accurate statistics.
A good example would be a reply I received from Iain Duncan Smith where he says
"An over reliance on self assessment is resulting in inconsistent awards; more than half of all decisions require no additional medical evidence".
Now this is quite an obscene manipulation of the facts. If someone fills in a form which obviously shows someone is disabled then the fact that the decision maker didn’t need to ask for any additional medical evidence does not mean that the award is made to someone defrauding or attempting to defraud disability benefits. One good example would be those that are terminally ill, why would any further medical evidence need to be provided above the evidence sent in with the application form?
IDS whole attitude seems driven by hatred towards people who have disabilities or are frail or poor, which is odd coming from the founder of the Centre for Social Justice- or as it is known by many, the Centre for Social Injustice.
In fact Mr Iain Duncan Smith has been shown to be wrong/lying at every swingeing cut to disability benefit and allowance cut he has maniacally made. Consultations have shown huge opposition from almost every organisation or individual campaigner to these ill thought through plans to claw back money from the poor and vulnerable. The Conservatives and Iain Duncan Smith decided to ignore the opposition. In fact on one episode of the BBC’s Question Time Mr Iain Duncan Smith almost said that the deaths were justified as long as the reforms went through!
David Cameron should have some form of empathy for disabled people. He had a disabled son (RIP Ivan, may you forgive your father for how he has treated disabled people) and father, yet since he became Prime Minister he seems to have had an ‘empathy bypass’ operation. Any suggested help for disabled people when he was leading the opposition has vanished like a Liberal Democrat promise. His emphasis has been to cut and cut again at disability benefits and allowances.
It is plain that the actions of this coalition- because disabled people and carers hold the Liberal Democrats equally responsible here, have led to suicides of vulnerable people, suicide notes verify this statement.
The GMC should recognise and confirm the fact that deaths have happened because of government policy. Should the number of deaths and suicides have happened in a hospital there would be charges of negligence due to lack of care. If any other company or organisation had presided over these many deaths of vulnerable people there would have been uproar. Because a government has caused these deaths in the name of ‘austerity’ and the disgraceful manipulation of the media it is allowed.
Any medical person that worked for ATOS that can be connected to a suicide should be investigated and appropriate action taken.
Disabled people and we carers have no one to stand up for us, we have been abandoned, it seems even the GMC is content to leave us to the wolves.
Norman Lamb stated during last years Carers Week (link = http://normanlamb.org.uk/wp/2013/national-carers-week-2013/) "We owe our carers an immense debt of gratitude. In this week’s National Carers Week" yet he is part of a government that has made carers lives worse.
The people we care for are being hit thanks to measures he has voted for:
Voted strongly for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the "bedroom tax")
Voted very strongly against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices
Voted very strongly against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability
Voted strongly for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits
Voted strongly for increasing the rate of VAT
Voted strongly against a banker’s bonus tax
Voted moderately against an annual tax on the value of expensive homes (popularly known as a mansion tax)
These are things that affect the people carers look after. If the people we care for feel distress at being hit by constant sanctions or new taxes then we carers have to try to reassure them that everything will be alright, when we know it won’t be. We are made to lie to the people we care for. How does the establishment think that makes us feel?
There has been at least one suicide due to the bedroom tax
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bedroom-tax-blamed-for-suspected-suicide-of-grandmother-8612647.html
Stephanie Bottrill said she could "simply could not afford to live any more". So Mr Lamb defends millionaires from the Mansion Tax but fails to defend the poor and vulnerable by voting for the bedroom tax? The Minister for Care Services has failed in his duty by simply not caring, except for caring to maintain a well paid position of power.
Mr Norman Lamb is excited by the Liberal Democrats idea of a carer bonus of £250.00 each year which will probably not cover all the extra expenditure we carers have to find to replace all the taxes Mr Lamb has helped hit us with. After many emails to Mr Lamb I have come to the conclusion that he is part of the problem, like every other organisation he/they/you fails to listen to us even while proclaiming that we are an important part of the health service and that we should be listened to because of our experience. No one listens, be it the Conservative party, the Labour party, the Liberal Democrat party and even the GMC.
It’s well documented that suicides have happened because of negligence on behave of the government, but what has been the results of these suicides on the families of these poor people? Have they been followed up and had counselling offered? Have the families been spoken too at all?
Has there been any investigation into failed suicides and if there is any correlation between them and the constant financial increases? Had the previous winter been as extreme as recent ones would we have seen thousands dead through hyperthermia because they could not afford to heat their homes?
Are there suicide attempts which failed but have worsened existing disabilities? What about suicide attempts that have caused disabilities?
The suicide rates in the UK are at an all time high, there has to be a relation to the cuts to benefits, this can only be laid at the door of the people who voted in the cuts to benefits and allowances.
All this will inevitably push up spending on the NHS, Social Services and the many other supporting agencies so the cuts will likely cause extra spending on other organisations so are counter-productive.
For the GMC failing to speak out is in my eyes a failure to follow correct procedure, it has failed to provide a duty of care
Take prompt action if you think that patient safety, dignity or comfort is being
compromised.
Protect and promote the health of patients and the public.
Listen to, and respond to, their concerns and preferences.
Support patients in caring for themselves to improve and maintain their health.
Work with colleagues in the ways that best serve patients’ interests.
Never abuse your patients’ trust in you or the public’s trust in the profession.
The GMC should be helping carers to help the people we care for. At present the GMC is failing carers and those that have made the ultimate sacrifice.
http://margaretmccartney.com/2011/03/07/the-gmcs-response-to-that-atos-article/ “The first duty of all doctors is ‘to make the care of your patient your first concern’. But that is not the only duty doctors must observe. Being open and honest and acting with integrity is also an essential part of medical professionalism.”
Why should we trust you, why should we believe you?
*1 http://www.ukcarers.net/ukcarersdotnet_004.htm
https://www.facebook.com/ATOSM/posts/623940184301787
http://www.mssociety.org.uk/forum/everyday-living/1666-welfare-reform-deaths-calums-list
http://dwpexamination.org/forum/general-discussion/calums-list-death-toll/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/benefit-cuts-blind-man-committed-2965375
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-two-killed-himself-because-1844633
*2 http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/jun/20/jobcentre-supervisors-suicide-risk-benefit-claimants
*3 http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-practice/practice-topics/regulation/gmc-launches-internal-review-of-suicides-among-doctors-facing-fitness-to-practise-investigations/1/20004473.article?&pageno=1&sortorder=dateadded&pagesize=50#.U7_zKzhOWUk
*4 http://margaretmccartney.com/2011/03/07/the-gmcs-response-to-that-atos-article/
*5 ) http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/corporate-right-wing-agenda-driving-thousands-americans-attempt-suicide?paging=off
