Old Medical Letters

Hi, can anyone advise please;
I have a couple of old letters, 2005, 2006, from consultants; would the appeal tribunal ignore these if I used them as supporting evidence? My reason for using them would be that my conditions haven't changed since I saw the consultants, basically, they couldn't help, I just had to manage with the medical conditions I have.
Many thanks, Rachel

Hi Rachel

I think the letters are definitely relevant to your appeal, especially if they indicate that there was nothing they could do to improve your health, and your condition hasn't changed.

Whether or not a tribunal shares my view is of course another matter, as tribunals can be readily dismissive of old evidence. But it certainly would not do any harm submitting the letters so that they are included in the appeal bundle.

Best wishes

Derek

The judge at my appeal read a letter from the last consultant rheumatologist I saw dated 2007, he's the last one because there's nothing anybody can do about my FMS so a further appointment would have been a waste of time. It didn't help, she commented on how old it was and asked did I not have anything more recent. I said "no" and explained why but I got the distinct impression it didn't help. It might have helped had my GP got on board and written something along the lines of he had not referred me since because FMS is chronic and there is nothing anybody can do. So I would say it depends on the context - if you can get a health professional to explain why nothing more recent that might help.

Hi Rachel,

The tribunal cannot ignore them, but from my experience, it's highly likely that as they're four to five years old, the tribunal would adjourn and ask an EMP to carry out a home visit to assess your current care and/or mobility needs. After which your appeal would be heard in full and enable them to look at both the old evidence and the new and reach a decision on your entitlement.

Presumably, you're referring to an appeal for DLA ?

Good luck.

Jim

I can only add my experience to something Jim said. Be careful if the tribunal adjourn your hearing to obtain an EMP report. That's exactly what they did to me and that was over a year ago.

I'm still waiting for the new hearing.

Hi, thankyou Derek, Joules and Jim for your advice. I think I will include them as they both describe my conditions and that they can't do anything more, for stated reasons. At worst they can dismiss them as evidence I guess. Why can they just not be obliged to read our entire medical histories??! It would save having to rehash notes over and over.