Fit to drive?

Headnote

OH can play an important role in helping to assess fitness to drive for or during work. The DVLA's Dr Nick Jenkins outlines how the agency's Group 1 and 2 standards work, what it looks for from medical professionals and its notification protocols.

I am the senior doctor at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). The DVLA is an executive agency of the Department for Transport and is the driver licensing authority in Britain. There are currently in excess of 48 million licence holders in Britain and about 4% of them have advised the DVLA that they have a medical condition that could affect their fitness to drive.

We are obliged to apply the appropriate standards and maintain road safety while balancing this against the individual's desire to remain mobile. We are keenly aware that ongoing mobility can be hugely important in combating social isolation, especially in later years. To do this, we are working in an increasingly collaborative manner with drivers, the medical profession and all other healthcare professionals who are involved in the drivers' medical care.

Around 650 staff - about 10% of the DVLA workforce - are employed in dealing with medical cases. This includes 38 doctors and nine nurse caseworkers, who come from a variety of backgrounds, including primary care, occupational medicine and a variety of secondary care specialties.

My own background involved 24 years as a full-time emergency medicine (A&E) consultant. After leaving substantive clinical practice to join the DVLA, I continued to undertake regular weekend shifts, and I found my DVLA work helped to inform my clinical practice, allowing me to better advise patients whose medical conditions were relevant to their driving.

Equally, the continued patient contact helped me to appreciate the individual nature of each of our patients who have medical conditions to which standard requirements apply. All of our doctors and nurse caseworkers undergo an in-house training period of at least six months before considering cases independently. During this period, particular attention is given to the legal framework within which the licensing process operates.

Online A-Z guide of medical conditions

The range of medical conditions that potentially impact upon driving is large. Increasingly, and mirroring the situation in clinical practice, we are dealing with the...