G.P refused to give client a MED 4. What can she do?

I need more information....

Why won't GP give MED 4? Is it because the GP has already issued a MED 4 or are there some other issues?

Has the customer been sent a letter with an IB50 asking for the MED 4?
(sometimes our customers get confused over MED 3s, 4s, 5s and 10s)

Has all other medical evidence expired?

Thanks

Charlotte

Hi 123456 in the absence of a name,assuming the client has been sent an IB50 and letter requesting med 4 check out IB 204 " A GUIDE FOR REGISTERED MEDICAL PRACTIONERS " it should be downloadable from the DWP website it outlines what med 4's are about and what the GP is expected to do ie complete it if they have seen the patient.
otherwise i could fax you the relevant pages.
andy

the guide for registered practitioners is available from rightsnet toolkit - see under guidance/medical issues

This discussion provides a way-in for me to ask a question that has puzzled me for ages. In over 20 years I have only ever come across Med. 3,4,5, and 10. Did Med 1,2,6,7,8, and 9 ever exist and if so, what happened to them?

Here's a bit of text from the DWP themselves, to save rummaging around on the internet :

Current procedures
Medical statements such as Med 3 and Med 4 are official documents and may be used by a patient as evidence to support a claim to a financial benefit. Quite apart from their use by employers as medical evidence to support a claim to statutory sick pay (SSP), medical statements form a key part of the claim process for state incapacity benefits. The certifying doctor is required to provide a Med 4 statement to a patient who is in receipt of a state incapacity benefit prior to the first application of the Personal Capability Assessment (PCA). The certifying doctor is required to base the Med 4 advice on an examination of the patient on the day of issue, or on the previous day. The PCA is the legal test used to determine entitlement to a state incapacity benefit (in the longer term) on medical grounds.

Also, here is a Med 1 ( though it's possibly not the one which made way for a Med 3 or 4 ):
http://www.revenue.ie/pdf/med1_e.pdf

This guidance indicates that it is compulsory for a GP to complete a med4 (altho it is 4 years old)

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/medical/medicalib204/sec1_00.asp

If the Med 4 has been requested because of the 1st PCA on the persons claim, then it is useful for us to have one. The more medical information we can put in front of our doctors, the more likely it is that our doctors will decide that they do not need to see the customer for the PCA and the customer will not have to go to the examination centre.
If the customer has already had a PCA on this claim then we may have requested the Med 4 in error. We usually only ask for one Med 4 for each claim. This may be why the doctor is refusing to issue. Get in touch with the local benefit processing office just to check if a Med 4 is actually needed.

I think it's well established that your client's GP is obliged under the terms of their employment contract to provide medical evidence in support of benefit claims. Could it be that your client's GP, rather than refusing to issue a med 4 per se, has actually refused to affirm that they are unfit for work. They should, of course, still have provided a med 4 but it would state "I don't recommend that you refrain from work ...." or however it's phrased.