DVLA Consultation Medical Driving Licences - ends Oct 22 2023

A consultation I ran across entirely by accident, about updating the rules wrt Medical Conditions for Driving Licences.

This covers regulation of things such as Diabetes Mellitus (which is a license renewal and medical declaration every 3 years), eyesight problems and other things.

You really need to read it at the link below - interesting stuff in there about KSIs for some things from STATS19 forms eg ~5-10 deaths and ~100 injuries a year linked to defective eyesight. I think they are looking for evoutionary changes not wholesale overhaul. So "medical test for everyone every 5 years" will not get done, but you could ask.

Stats are about 50k licences are revoled for medical reasons every year.

I want:

1 - Elderly people (imo over 75) need to have an renewal application confirmed by their GP, and a real eye test certificate by an optomotrist, not just a self-declaration as at present; the temptation to deceive is too great imo.

2 - Medical checks by GPs needs to be part of the basic GP contract, not a paid-for add on as at present, which disincentivises checks.

3 - Possibly a professional duty for Optomotrists to warn the individual and report defective eyesight where a person is known to drive and does not have good enough eyesight.

4 - Bubbling in the background here is inefficiency / underresourcing - eg current 6 month driving test backlog.

Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/driver-licensing-for-people-...

Response form: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/interview/5f831945-e022-431d-b959-7ccde7...