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THE private firm paid by the Government to claw back disability benefit told an undercover GP they treated people like "claimants, not patients".

Margaret McCartney, a GP in Glasgow, revealed how French-owned Atos Healthcare would slash the benefits bill after going to one of their recruitment evenings.

The firm are being paid £100million a year by the Tories to reassess people currently claiming disability and sickness benefit.

Dr McCartney claims Atos staff are under pressure to assess people quickly and are told they are not working in "a typical caring role".

Writing on her blog, she said: "I am finding, often, a distinct lack of co-operation when it comes to polite and basic questions being asked of companies who are contracted to provide services to the Government.

"I wanted to know about Atos recruitment, audit and training. They didn't want to talk."

The GP attended a recruitment evening held by Atos in Glasgow and published her findings in an article in the British Medical Journal.

She wrote: "We were told: 'You are not in a typical caring role. This isn't about diagnosing.' And: 'We don't call them patients. We call them claimants.'"

She revealed doctors working full-time with Atos can earn a basic salary of £54,000 plus various benefits including private healthcare.

Sessional doctors are paid £35.16 for each incapacity benefit examination and £51.37 for disability living allowance examination.

Dr McCartney said: "The average morning or afternoon session should consist of five assessments and it was made clear at the recruitment evening that clinicians who did not achieve this regularly would be picked up quickly."

Staff are given five days of training before they can start making assessments on whether claimants are entitled to their benefits.

Dr McCartney said: "It was clear that the medical examination consisted of a computerised form to be filled in by choosing drop-down statements and justifying them.

"For example, you could say 'able to walk with ease' if you witnessed this or the patient told you this."

Figures show that around 40 per cent of people who questioned an assessment that they are fit for work have won their appeal.

Dr McCartney said: "At the meeting, I asked how it was possible to know the variation in symptoms that a patient may have during a one-off assessment.

"I was told that this could be 'difficult' but this 'wasn't an occupational health service'. Instead, it was a 'functional assessment'."

A three-year contract was awarded to Atos last November, which will see one-and-a-half million people undergo the new tests.

But the company has just 57 staff trying to answer 2000 calls a day about work assessments.

Last week the Sunday Mail revealed Atos failed to answer 134 phone calls from a cancer sufferer's MP.

The patient had asked Labour's Tom Greatrex for help after she was kept on hold for 40 minutes.

But when the Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP's staff rang the Atos helpline, they kept getting the engaged tone.

Atos chief executive Keith Wilman was paid £626,000 last year.