Medical Assessments – back to the grindstone.
Well, once again, even though INZ say clearly they won’t even look at an application for a gazillion years – they have already sent my brother’s paperwork to the Medical Assessor and asked for some further tests. Now one difference we did notice is that this time, the letter was sent by a “support officer” whereas with my parents application, it was an immigration officer who sent out this letter. Im wondering if that means they are using lower grade staff to do a lot of the background work before the Immigration Officers take up the case and make the decisions. Sensible if they are – except I understood that it was up to the warranted officers to make the decision as to whether an application had to go to the MA or not.
I’d check – but that would be “systematic”.
The other thing which I am being gently “optimistic” about is that they aren’t asking any questions about the epilepsy – which would suggest that they are comfortable with this aspect of my brothers health. I would like to be wildly optimistic and say that this means the epilepsy is in the clear – but the last MA – having got conformation that my dad’s Diabetes was not an issue then went looking for other things to make a fuss about. So we can’t quite tick that one off just yet.
What they want to look at is Liver Function. It seems on the forums that a lot of people are being picked up on this. My brother does have lowered function, but then Epilepsy medication will over time bugger up your liver to a certain extent. It does not however tend to result in needing transplants or anything hideous.
Most people in this situation of needing renewed LFT’s take Milk Thistle supplements and avoid alcohol for a while before the second blood tests. I’m quite a fan of Milk Thistle anyway, and Brother has been taking a daily since the original set of tests were done and the LFT’s came out higher than normal. (Sometimes having someone in the family who can read blood tests results is handy!). And thankfully – the second bloods were taken before the Alcohol-Fest which is Toast Martinborough.
They also want to test for Hepatitis C. At first I thought this was a re-test and was quite worried, thinking that there must have been a bad test result. Which would be odd. But looking back at the original medical – they don’t actually test for Hep C as standard, only Hep B.
(Note: A lot of people believe wrongly that you are not allowed to look at the medicals once they are done. You can. And you should. You should also take copies of all medical test results – so you have something to prove your case if you start getting the run-around. You may also need – as we did – to be able to give the full set of medical paperwork to your own doctors for a second opinion.)
There is an annoying aspect to this though. Once again, INZ have made a silly mistake with the application. The paperwork for the MA has a comment on it that the original lab results were not sent to them. As we know we sent them to INZ, it means that INZ forgot to pass them on.
It would be nice if they would just take a bit more care with these things, and at least try to prevent screwing things up. Its not rocket science!
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Comments
4 Comments on Medical Assessments – back to the grindstone.
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cristina on
Sun, 8th Nov 2009 3:42 am
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Avalon on
Sun, 8th Nov 2009 10:42 am
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Snapa on
Mon, 11th Jan 2010 3:21 pm
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Avalon on
Mon, 11th Jan 2010 8:26 pm
I found out I have hepatitis C because my liver function indicators where unusually high at a random blood test. I had no symptoms. I hope this is not the case with your brother but the only way to find out is to check for hepatitis c antibodies.
I really really hope I am wrong.
Any information on hepc got hepc nomads http://www.hepcnomads.co.uk or http://www.hcvadvocate.org/
good luck with everything
btw. i have had the treatment and I am clear of the virus now.
Cheers Cristina for the link.
Brother was clear – which is brilliant news. Some of the levels were still high – but that can be explained by the meds. Im thinking we may ask for a refereal to a specialist now and avoind waiting.
My partner has epilepsy. The assessor requested for a specialist report, just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in my opinion. After the report, which simply stated that my partner has epilepsy and how long the treatment has been for everything proceeded. The Hepatitis C check is carried out if you have raised liver enzymes. This is because you can not get a medical waiver if you have hepatitis C and raised liver enzymes, you can however get a waiver if you have raised liver function (last resort though). I was actually passed on having raised liver enzymes, after proving over the period of 2 to 3 months through continued blood tests that the high (ALT from memory) was due to alcohol consumption. Be mindful that even paracetamol can affect LFT.
Cheers,
Snapa
Cheers Snapa,
Brother has just has a Liver Ultrasound and referal to a Liver Specialist – who is overseeing regular LFT’s. INZ havent asked for this – but we asked the local GP for the referal, and he is behind us all the way.
As we were so rudely told by London INZ that we were supposed to use our initiative – we are getting all the tests done before the MA says so.
Paracetamol wouldnt affect LFT’s anywhere near as much as Epilepsy Meds – but its a good reminder for anyone who does take it regularly. Brother has been off alcohol (except for christmas), is taking Milk Thistle, and doesnt take paracetamol anyway – which means that any raised levels in this case is purely the meds – as theres no underlying Liver Problem.
Im really glad your partner got through 
I Just have all fingers crossed now
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