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In a speech about what he calls “sick note culture” last Friday, Rishi Sunak said that he would never “dismiss or downplay the illnesses people have,” but suggested that some of the millions of people deemed ineligible to work by the government may be part of a “growing trend” of “over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life.”
In the welfare speech, which has been roundly slammed, the Prime Minister said “we are going to tighten up the Work Capability Assessment… such that hundreds of thousands of benefit recipients with less severe conditions will now be expected to engage in the world of work – and be supported to do so.”
NHS GP Martin Brunet was among those appalled by the PM’s comments. In a TikTok video which has gained over 800k views at the time of writing, the GP said, ”[Rishi Sunak] said that there’s been a surge of people on welfare who say that they have a medical health condition.
“Prime Minister, when you use language like that, you strongly imply that you don’t believe them,” the doctor added. “And people with mental health conditions are fed up with not being believed.”
Dr. Brunet says that Rishi Sunak’s government has only been paying “lip service” to mental health needs
In his April 19th speech, Sunak commented on how Work Capability Assessments have deemed 65% of applicants unable to work in 2023 vs 20% in 2011.
But Dr. Brunet told HuffPost UK that Sunak’s suggestion that people only seem “three times sicker than they were a decade ago” due to “over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life” is “frankly ridiculous.”
“The real interpretation is that the assessments in 2011 were so poorly done that a huge number were overturned in appeal,” the doctor told HuffPost UK.
“Does he really think that only one in five people signed off work are genuinely unwell? Even the 65% rate is probably too low.”
“He says that it’s not reasonable that somebody with mild anxiety and depression should be out of work on welfare… Well I can tell you, there’s nothing mild about any health condition that means you’re not able to work, or even that you end up temporarily on welfare,” the NHS GP said in his video.
“Sunak’s claim that this is a moral mission is perverse”
The doctor told HuffPost UK that “Sunak’s claim that this is a moral mission is perverse.”
“In threatening people with mental health conditions in this way he has made so many people more anxious and more low as they feel their condition is not believed; it is not just those on benefits who have felt attacked by his words,” the GP shared with HuffPost UK.
“He says he rejects the claim that he lacks compassion for people with mental health conditions, but we don’t have to accept this ― the hostility of his words speak for themselves.”
Dr. Brunet also told HuffPost UK, ”[Sunak] says repeatedly that people should have support, but his speech made no mention of what that support should be or any suggestion that there would be any attempt to improve that support.
“If anything, by taking the issue of sick notes from GPs to external assessors, he is removing one line of support, the GP, since we will no longer be the ones having the discussion about work with the patient.”
His video caption ends, “I have never known mental health services to be in a worse state than they are right now.”
The doctor’s video and comments come as multiple charities and health professionals have spoken out against the PM’s speech.
@doc_martin_gp Please forgive me for going outside my usual posts and being political, but I can’t stay silent about the Prime Minister’s attack on mental health. If you agree with me it would be amazing if you could support me by reposting this, liking and commenting. I have a small voice on this platform, most people with a mental health condition rarely get their voice heard at all, maybe if we join together we can make our voice louder! 👍💪😊 And if you are a journalist and would like to interview me then please get in touch. I have a lot more to say on this one! The PM calls this a ‘moral mission’, but I found nothing morally good about what he had to say about mental health yesterday, I only saw prejudice and cruelty. You are not going to help someone’s mental health by threatening them or forcing them into poverty. People with mild anxiety or depression do not end up on welfare – how can it be mild if it has that effect on you? Of course there may be some people who abuse the system, but there are MPs, billionaires and even doctors who abuse the system. For the vast majority of people with a mental health condition the last thing they want is to be dependent on benefits – it is hardly a lavish lifestyle! If any health condition leads to having to depend on benefits how can it be mild? It is far more complex that that. Sunak says that in 2011 20% of fit to work assessments concluded that the person was fit to work and that now it is 65%, concluding that this was wrong, since people couldn’t be three times sicker. He failed to mention that in 2011 ATOS, the private company that did disability assessments, did a terrible job and a huge number of their assessments were overturned on appeal. Mr Sunak says people with mental health conditions should get support, but where is that? With 3-4 year waits for assessments for autism and ADHD, most patients referred to secondary care deemed to be ‘below threshold’, eating disorder units that can only see the very sickest patients and talking therapy that is limited to 6 sessions, I have never known mental health services be in a worse state than they are right now 😔 #mentalhealth#nhs#welfare#sunak#politics
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