[redsquare74ucys]

Comments section from http://thestandard.o...opathic-policy/

Article is about ACC Perverse Incentives and Sociopathic Policy, and how the ACC model
harms clients etc (the usual ACC stuff we know about).

I notice many of the comments state that WINZ is worse.

Read on another site about this Dr Bratt who was appointed Health Advisor to MSD.

Quote

xtasy 2.1.2
22 June 2012 at 4:14 pm

IrishBill: Yes, but what WINZ do is even worse!

It was under the last Labour led government that MSD in 2007 introduced the positions of Principal Health Advisor and Principal Disability Advisor, who have since overseen, “mentored”, instructed and liaised with internal Regional Health and Disability Advisors, and also Health and Disability Coordinators. The latter ones do under the PHA and PDA also intensively work with the medical profession and especially so-called “designated doctors”, who WINZ uses for getting supposedly “independent” second opinions or reviews from for applicants or recipients of sickness and invalid’s benefits.

What should be of immense worry is that since 2008 WINZ and MSD have been “training” these designated doctors (who are almost exclusively GPs), in regards to how MSD and WINZ work, what they “expect” and how they best work with them when making decisions on clients.

The person who is the Principal Health Advisor, who actually himself has been involved in, and otherwise managed and overseen this “training” is a Dr David Bratt (GP) from Wellington.

He has a very staunch conviction that “work” is the best kind of “medicine” for people to get well and back to work.

Just viewing some “presentations” he has launched, see the following links, and the picture becomes clear, as what MSD and WINZ are now doing and have been doing since at least 2008:

http://www.rgpn.org....shops-2011.aspx
(download the PowerPoint presentation by Dr David Bratt, given on 18 March 2011 at the NZ Rural GP Network conference, detailing “issues” re “clients” or “patients” pressuring doctors);

http://ips.ac.nz/Wel...it-Sunshine.pdf
(a pdf presentation he also likes to use in meetings, conferences and the likes, where he presents his and thus WINZ’s position re “benefits” and how it may affect your “health”);


(the first of four parts of a presentation he held at the Welfare Working Group Forum in 2010, see the other parts also – all available via YouTube!).

ACC Forum posters and members have been aware of these things for years:
http://accforum.org/...t-peter-jensen/

[hukildaspida]

May we assume this is one and the same Dr David BRATT ?

How much has he been paid by us levypayers over the years, including when he was with Catalyst - ACC and now MSD?

How much has he contributed to destroying peoples well-being & livelihoods?

It is time he was made ACCountable for the roles he has played.

Post #36

Private contractors to manage ACC claimants Here We Go Again
http://accforum.org/...h__1#entry91766




Company: 915666 CATALYST RISK MANAGEMENT LIMITED


FORMER DIRECTORS

BRATT, David Leslie 25-JUN-1999 01-APR-2000
100 Coromandel Street, Newtown, Wellington

[hukildaspida]

The companies highlighted in blue are the ones Dr David Leslie BRATT is currently either a director or shareholder of.

Is he on a State Services Commission contract in his role with MSD?

http://www.workandin...als-issue-1.pdf

Would the media be able to confirm yes or no, because if he is we would have thought that it may be in breach of his terms of contract to also be operating private companies.

http://www.business....l=false#results


Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 results.
BRATT, David L

NEWTOWN MEDICAL CENTRE LIMITED (253351) (Struck off) - Director

BRATT, David L

NEWTOWN MEDICAL CENTRE LIMITED (253351) (Struck off) - Shareholder

BRATT, David Leslie

HARBOUR HOUSE LIMITED (1820260) - Director

BRATT, David Leslie

ANCHORAGE HOLDINGS LIMITED (672069) (Struck off) - Ceased Director

BRATT, David Leslie

TE HOPAI HOSPITAL LIMITED (808329) - Director

BRATT, David Leslie

TE HOPAI HOSPITAL LIMITED (808329) - Shareholder

BRATT, David Leslie

ALEXANDRA HOME LIMITED (651362) - Director

BRATT, David Leslie

ALEXANDRA HOME LIMITED (651362) - Shareholder

BRATT, David Leslie

WELLINGTON AFTER-HOURS MEDICAL SERVICE LIMITED (469682) - Ceased Director

BRATT, David Leslie

CATALYST RISK MANAGEMENT LIMITED (915666) - Ceased Director

BRATT, David Leslie

TE HOPAI HOME LIMITED (514456) - Director

BRATT, David Leslie

TE HOPAI HOME LIMITED (514456) - Shareholder

BRATT, David Leslie

CARE NZ (EST 1954) LIMITED (1003540) - Director


And

http://old.nurse.org...rk_support.html

This is an excerpt from the text of a presentation delivered by Dr David Bratt, Principal Health Advisor to the Ministry of Social Development entitled Working New Zealand:
Work Focused Support


Overview
Dr David Bratt gave an overview of his new role as the Principal Health Advisor within Work and Income NZ (WINZ) as part of the Ministry for Social Development (MSD) and WINZ’s new focus of working across the wider determinants of health and with a broader range of providers. Other new appointments established to support the new way of working include a Principal Disability Advisor, 13 Regional Health Advisors, 13 Regional Disability Advisors, 55 Employment Co-ordinators and 13 Regional Health and Disability Co-ordinators.

WINZ recognises that in order to make a difference for their clients, in some cases more specific services are required and WINZ is keen to make use of those services that already exist. For example, 40 percent of those on the Invalids Benefit have stress and/or depression and would benefit from access to DHBs mental health services. Where there is no existing service, or where a particular person is not eligible for an existing service, then WINZ would consider funding this. Therefore, WINZ is keen to engage with DHBs and PHOs around this.

David noted that one factor which presents a challenge to greater collaboration between WINZ and the health sector is that the MSD regions do not coincide with DHB regions.

Other limitations to the change process identified by David were:

the extent to which this is a cultural change for MSD;
the variability to which the MSD regions have meaningful relationships with their respective DHBs;
the funding available for these new services is only $10 million per year, therefore it is important that WINZ is able to leverage off the services that already exist and use its funding to perhaps make those services more viable;
capability to engage in those discussions

[hukildaspida]

May we recommend you internet search & read Prof Gordon Waddell's "research"


And this document re allegations of WINZ clients bullying doctors that Dr David Bratt was instrumental in writing.

Pressure/No Pressure
http://www.rgpn.org......./D-Bratt.ppt
File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint - Quick View
Dr David Bratt. Anne Hawker. Health and Disability Advisors to MSD. Menu. Sources of Pressure for the GP and for General Practice? Work and Income “Work ...

Pressure / No Pressure

Strategies for Pushy Patients

Dr David Bratt
Anne Hawker
Health and Disability Advisors to MSD



Adverse Effects

“Long term worklessness is one of the greatest risks to health in our society. It is more dangerous than the most dangerous jobs in the construction industry, or working on an oil rig in the North Sea, and too often we not only fail to protect our patients from long term worklessness, we sometimes actually push them into it.”
Prof Gordon Waddell 2007

[redsquare74ucys]

http://www.nzdoctor....it-addicts.aspx

Quote

1 August 2012
< BACK TO ISSUE OVERVIEW
Harms lurk for benefit addicts
Lucy [email protected]

News David Bratt Mugshot

David Bratt

About 150 GP trainers gathered in Wellington for the fourth RNZCGP education
convention last month. The theme was "Close Encounters: Teaching and learning in
the practice environment". Lucy Ratcliffe reports

If the benefit was a drug, it would not get past Medsafe, according to Ministry
of Social Development principal health advisor David Bratt.

Long-term unemployment has been shown to be as bad as smoking 10 packets of
cigarettes daily, Dr Bratt says.

As a drug, it would be an addictive, debilitating substance, he told the RNZCGP
education convention.

In the past quarter, almost 60,000 people received the sickness benefit,
compared with 46,000 in 2008.

"I don't know if we have suddenly got all that sick," Dr Bratt says.

Whether a GP is signing a prescription or a medical certificate, similar
considerations should apply.

Dr Bratt asks GPs to think about what is being treated. Is the treatment based
on
evidence, is the treatment effective, what are the side effects, adverse
reactions and interactions?

The evidence shows being out of work is not only as bad as chain smoking, but
can also increase the risk of suicide, especially in young men.

Research into the impact of parental unemployment on children has found higher
incidence of chronic illness, psychosomatic symptoms, psychological distress
such as depression, substance abuse and delinquent behaviour, as well as
increased risk of being out of work when they are adults, Dr Bratt says.

In New Zealand, one in five children grows up in a household where no one is in
paid work.

In Northland, that figure is one in three, he says.

"When you write a certificate, there are consequences of that."

Working full time on minimum wage equates to a salary of about $28,000. The most
beneficiaries can receive annually is $24,808 - and that is for a couple on an
invalid's benefit.

The most a sickness beneficiary over 25 can receive is $11,908 annually.
"If someone is paid the minimum wage, they are better off than someone on the
benefit," Dr Bratt says.

In 2010, Work and Income surveyed about 800 GPs and found 71 per cent thought
signing a medical certificate was a mechanism to provide income for the patient.

Dr Bratt says 40 per cent of GPs believed no work was available. However, he
says, even at the height of the recession, 35 per cent of people who walked into
a Work and Income office either found work or started studying.

In 2012, that figure sits at 49 per cent, he says.

Seeking the real reasons why people do not want to work can be tricky; some will
tell their GP: "I have a sore back, I can't work."

Given 80 per cent of the population have back problems, there is usually another
reason, Dr Bratt says.

A UK study found of the main obstacles for going to work, medical problems made
up just 3 per cent of the list.

The real obstacles are usually child care, language difficulties or the belief
no one will employ them.

[redsquare74ucys]

http://www.nzdoctor....msd-policy.aspx

Quote

29 August 2012
< BACK TO ISSUE OVERVIEW
Questioning the direction of MSD policy
Tim Walker Nelson

Letter

from Tim Walker Nelson

While I am not a medic (that's my wife), I frequently read and enjoy New Zealand
Doctor.

One article though that really surprised me was one reporting on a Ministry of Social
Development employee, David Bratt, entitled "Harms lurk for benefit addicts" (New
Zealand Doctor, 1 August) to an RNZCGP convention.

As to why sickness num­bers have increased, Dr Bratt implies that either doctors
are colluding with their patients or that people are deliberately choosing to be
unemployed.

He seems to take no cog­nisance that unemployment is a real problem and views those
without work as all malingerers.

That this approach is taken by a government bureaucrat who is principal health
advisor to the Ministry of Social Development - and not the spokesperson for some
lunatic fringe political party, eg, ACT - is strange indeed.

It has all the fervour of the ideologue combined with a minimum of understanding.
It would be helpful if a person in his position could be part of the solution rather
than part of the problem.

[redsquare74ucys]

Externals - Newsletter for health and disability professionals and organisations:

www.workandincome.govt.nz/documents/externals-issue-1.pdf

http://www.workandin...es/index.html#E (Scroll down to Externals)

Externals Issue 1
November 2009

Externals Issue 2
September 2010

Externals Issue 3
April 2011

Externals Issue 4
September 2011

Externals Issue 5
July 2012

[Marc]

Hi -

This thread does also ask for info about Regional Health Advisors working for MSD.

By the way, there is one I have obtained some reliable info about.

Re Tanya Rissman, Regional Disability Advisor - and presently apparently still also ACTING Regional Health Advisor for MSD / Work and Income in the "Southern Region" (Southern South Island area) see the following information:

http://alumnionline....EY-Nov-2002.pdf

(see article about 'Antics Ltd' on page 39 of that magazine, for details about the background, education, experience and qualifications of this "RHA" and "RDA"working for MSD)

http://www.adanz.org...19e2b22/Dunedin LOAD website notes 13 Aug 09 final.pdf

http://www.southernd...49942875-14.pdf

She appears to be a trained teacher, who taught kids with disabilities (learning difficulties), tried running a kind of care and consultancy agency under the name of Antics Ltd, has worked "with" psychologists, counsellors and social workers, and appears to also have own counselling and social work experience.

This according to MSD's rules and standards appears to qualify her to be both RDA and also Acting RHA, to assess virtually ALL kinds of medical cases presented to her by case managers working in offices in that region.

Other RHAs are supposed to be nurses and other "health qualified" professionals, but for sure, at least some are NOT registered.

That is how MSD work, and these sorts of people are the ones that work under Dr David Bratt.

Rgds

Marc

Attached File(s)

•  MASSEY-Nov-2002, Tanya Rissman, 'Antics Ltd', prof. qualifications, article, p. 39, d-load, 15.08.12.pdf (1.36MB)
  Number of downloads: 3

[Marc]

Dr David Bratt -

An enthusiastic follower of the perverted "bio-psycho-social model" promoted by British Professor Sir Mansel Aylward, and a faithful disciple of his staunch "work ability focused" ideology, has created a whole range of interesting presentations, where he enjoys to quote a lot of pseudo medical scientific findings, and where he takes delight in comparing sick and disabled WINZ beneficiaries with DRUG ADDICTS!

He has published a whole range of his peculiar and bizarre presentations, which he has over the years presented to GP conferences, medical trainers and various other venues.

Some of them are:

http://igps.victoria...it-Sunshine.pdf

http://www.gpcme.co....ratt-Hawker.pdf

http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/GP CME/Friday/C1 1515 Bratt-Hawker.pdf

http://www.gpcme.co....June%202012.pdf

http://www.gpcme.co....0_Bratt_Medical Certificates are Clinical Instruments too - June 2012.pdf

http://www.google.co...vZo_cQpC2rFyelg


Dr Bratt, also manager or director of a number of businesses, has also been given "credit" by journalists writing for NZ Doctor magazine with this kind of story:

http://www.nzdoctor....it-addicts.aspx

http://www.nzdoctor....msd-policy.aspx

http://www.nzdoctor....eir-health.aspx

(if the links do not work, try a copy and paste into the search box and try to find it that way)


It is astonishing that MSD put up with such a man, showing such impudent bias, but I suppose that speaks volume of the "mission" that MSD follow, and what their true philosophy is at the top. If they would disagree with all this, Dr David Bratt would have been "sacked" years ago. But he was not.

 Dr D. Bratt, MSD, 'Harm lurks for benefit addicts', article, NZ Doctor, 01.08.12, scan, 18.08.2012.pdf (660.82K)
Number of downloads: 2

Attached File(s)

•  Dr D. Bratt, MSD, PHA, critical ltr by reader T. Walker Nelson, NZ Doctor, 29.08.2012.pdf (273.59K)
  Number of downloads: 3
•  MSD, RDA, Pos. Descrptn, 210-20110908091035, current, 15.08.2012.pdf (186.24K)
  Number of downloads: 2

[MG]

Don't forget about Bratt's understrapper, the dearly loved Dr David Rankin, who golden parachuted over to MSD after successfully advising ACC how to shaft claimants for so many years. Afficionados will remember Rankin's cameo appearances on TV stories into ACC's abusive practices with real joy. They will no doubt be delighted to learn that Rankin is well and prospering at MSD these days. It's worth noting, too, that Bratt and Rankin were appointed to MSD in the days of the "Labour| [sic] government, which also created the RHA/RDA gatekeepers, and introduced the first Social Security (Future Focus) legislation, in 2007, with its references to a "relentless focus on work" for beneficiaries, regardless of the reasons for their inability to obtain, or maintain, paid employment. National, as usual, merely continued Labour's welfare policy direction, although they took it even further to the right and are now gearing up for a major onslaught on the sick and disabled. Fear not, though, Drs Bratt and Rankin won't go short of taxpayers $$$ and will be able to keep roofs over their heads. Pity about the rest of us, though.

[Marc]

MG, on 16 January 2013 - 12:55 PM, said:

Don't forget about Bratt's understrapper, the dearly loved Dr David Rankin, who golden parachuted over to MSD after successfully advising ACC how to shaft claimants for so many years. Afficionados will remember Rankin's cameo appearances on TV stories into ACC's abusive practices with real joy. They will no doubt be delighted to learn that Rankin is well and prospering at MSD these days. It's worth noting, too, that Bratt and Rankin were appointed to MSD in the days of the "Labour| [sic] government, which also created the RHA/RDA gatekeepers, and introduced the first Social Security (Future Focus) legislation, in 2007, with its references to a "relentless focus on work" for beneficiaries, regardless of the reasons for their inability to obtain, or maintain, paid employment. National, as usual, merely continued Labour's welfare policy direction, although they took it even further to the right and are now gearing up for a major onslaught on the sick and disabled. Fear not, though, Drs Bratt and Rankin won't go short of taxpayers $$$ and will be able to keep roofs over their heads. Pity about the rest of us, though.

MG

You are right indeed, it has never passed my attention span and detailed reserach, that both a Dr Rankin and Dr Bratt were both very instrumental in implementing the "training" of their "hand picked" (they would never admit to that though) "designated doctors", working for MSD and WINZ! I am totally informed, likely more than anybody else in NZ, about their involvement in the echelons of the domains within MSD and ACC.

See some interesting attached documents, obtained through confidential circles, likely by way of O.I.A., which clearly show, what these men were up to:

Attached File(s)

•  MSD, Design. Dr. Training proposal, memo, fr. T. Mulvena, S. McGill, p. 1, copy, 27.06.2008.pdf (526.85K)
  Number of downloads: 3
•  MSD, Design. Dr. Training, H.+.D. Coordinator, info sheet, copy, mid or late 2008.pdf (947.23K)
  Number of downloads: 2
•  MSD, Role of Designated Doctors, prop. changes, Dr. Rankin, memo, front p. copy, 27.03.2006.pdf (933.67K)
  Number of downloads: 3
•  MSD, Design. Dr. Fee Admustment Proposal, Dr. D. Bratt, memo, copy, 19.11.2008.pdf (1.64MB)
  Number of downloads: 2
•  MSD, Design. Dr. Training, Ch.Ch. Papanui Workshop, schedule, Dr. Rankin, contacts, 12.08.2008.pdf (568.31K)
  Number of downloads: 2

[Marc]

See the attached document also!

HEAVY STUFF THIS IS IS!!!

Attached File(s)

•  MSD, GP Second Opinion proposals, RHA + RDA posns, Dr D. Rankin, memo, copy, 05.06.2007.pdf (3.14MB)
  Number of downloads: 4

[Marc]

One more confidential document to look at - from dear old MSD and Dr Rankin (was it also aka "Rake in" ?):

See especially at the end of the "Summary" on page one of the memo, where they with impunity state:

"Designated doctors should be engaged through a robust selection process and be involved in regular training and education".

Now, what does that tell you, "training" and "education", so we have already at WiNZ doctors challenge everyone facing a "designated doctor" with asking well selected, targeted, instrumental, and dictated questions about:

What benefit are you on?
What benefit were you on before?
How long have you been on benefit A or B?
Why do you think you are dependent or in need of staying on a benefit?
When did you last work?
What did you last do for a job?
Why did you terminate your job?
Why did you not seek alternative work?
Why do you feel that you cannot work now?
What is your education and/or qualification?
Is there any work you may feel you can do?

Then it is often a brief measure of heart beat, blood pressure, a bit of this and the other, but NO thorough medical examination, which should really be happening when seeing a designated doctor. the questioning is by "weight" often more focused on work and work ability, rather than health issues. Also WINZ tells their doctors, look at "what a client can do, rather than what they cannot"! The balance of proof has shifted from Winz to prove a client's ability to work, to rather have the client challenged and prove they cannot work. It is a bit like a court challenging the accused to prove their innocence, rather than asking the prosecution to prove the guilt now.

Few are experts in the areas of the client sent to them, but they get away with it, usually claiming, they are GPs and thus as "generalists" have "all round" "expertise" and even rule on "mental health" and "addiction", and hence they send their pre-designed reports and recommendations in to WINZ, who with glee await the expected outcome, to save them a certain amount of money, by short shifting beneficiaries and sending them down the ranks, to a lower paid benefit.

That is what we are at now, and with new work testing regimes, medical assessment outsourcing and worse to come under the new benefit reforms, the hell will break loose soon. Suicides and similar will be expected here, as they happened in the UK.

Dr Rankin and Bratt are mere instruments in a nasty new social engineering game, based on ruthless social Darwinism.

Attached File(s)

•  MSD, Role of Design. Doctors, prop. changes, Dr. Rankin, 3 pgs, memo, 27.03.2006.pdf (1.48MB)
  Number of downloads: 6

[MG]

Thanks Marc. Most useful material here. All written during the term of the "Labour" [sic] government, I note. I attach some material I've found on this issue. The MSD medical assessment regime is almost identical to the in the UK, in which our old friend UNUM plays a leading, and very profitable, role. In turn the regime is almost identical to ACC's beloved assessment regime. No surprises there, as most of the villains feed from the same troughs. One difference between the UK and NZ regimes will be that sick and disabled people shafted here will have no review or appeal rights (beyond another panel of MSD-appointed doctors. Guess who they will be?). That way, there will be none of this embarrassing nonsense of 60% successful appeal rates that occurs in the UK.

Attached File(s)

•  Aligning-SB-IB-with-ACC-approaches .pdf (225.59K)
  Number of downloads: 4
•  Misuse of evidence.pdf (909.5K)
  Number of downloads: 5
•  The benefits scandal.pdf (892.45K)
  Number of downloads: 3

[Marc]

MG, on 17 January 2013 - 11:50 AM, said:

Thanks Marc. Most useful material here. All written during the term of the "Labour" [sic] government, I note. I attach some material I've found on this issue. The MSD medical assessment regime is almost identical to the in the UK, in which our old friend UNUM plays a leading, and very profitable, role. In turn the regime is almost identical to ACC's beloved assessment regime. No surprises there, as most of the villains feed from the same troughs. One difference between the UK and NZ regimes will be that sick and disabled people shafted here will have no review or appeal rights (beyond another panel of MSD-appointed doctors. Guess who they will be?). That way, there will be none of this embarrassing nonsense of 60% successful appeal rates that occurs in the UK.

MG

Thanks for your contribution of some essential reading material.

The first PDF document you attached is interesting, as it clearly shows, how the present welfare reforms have been influenced by that kind of report, and that this is, what the Welfare Working Group wanted all along. Yes, it is clear, that the government set up the WWG to seek such reports and other submissions, which gave them the reason to start outsourcing welfare services from WINZ, to take an "investment approach" and what else comes into play. It is enlightening information.

As for the other two articles (fr. 'Soundings'), it adds to what I have learned already, and it reinforces that the whole "reform" agenda has been - and is being promoted - by hand-picked "experts", policy makers and administratiors in the UK.

As with so much else that gets introduced as law and new systems here, the NZ government is keen to follow down the same track, no matter how disastrous the experiences for disabled and seriously sick and incapacitated in the UK have been.

The present government loves this ideology, as it will please a core base of their supporters and more faithful voters, and above all, as it is intended to cut costs. Whether the latter will actually happen is quite doubtful. Much harm, damage and new problems will create new costs, and again tax payers will have to pay for this experiment further years down the line.