Medical problems and licence revocation

obi_waynne

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Did you know that in the UK your licence is revoked if you have certain medical conditions.

The obvious ones are heart trouble etc where no treatment/medication is in place.

A good freind of mine was referred to a sleep clinic and has been told not to drive until he has had a diagnosis. Now, he has never fallen asleep during the day and just has trouble sleeping at night with breathing problems which wake him up periodically.

It seemed a bit harsh to me as he has to wait for over a month to get an appointment to get a diagnosis.

Surely if you are undiagnosed you should be able to self certify yourself to drive.
 
Yeah a mate of mine had his taken off him 4 years ago as he had a fit one day. was revoked for a year, got it back and 2 months ago passed out ( stupid **** comes off night shift 2 hours kip back up to do his gardening bit then goes back into work for another 12hrs shift and does the same again the next day. No sleep is going to make you pass out ) he lost it again for another year.
 
It's a shame that clinical stupidity isn't reason enough. Might solve some of the p*** poor driving to which we've all subjected at times.
 
nope but whats worse is the wife works in opthamology, at present the doctors cant take your license off you if they claim your eyesight is not good enough. the patient has to do it themselves.

So you can have someone who cant read the big huge letter at the top of the screen but if they decide that they can drive fine theres nothing the doc can do
 
I had to report my illnesses: Angina ( Not brought on by driving), Coronary & congestive Heart failure, Hypothyroidism,Auto immune deficiency ( NOT hiv), Diabetes 2, Scarring & fluid on lungs, Scarred kideys, cirrhosis of the liver, cervical spondylosis, arthritis in left shoulder, arm & leg. :sad2: Phew!! my feet are ok lol ;) & all this kicked in from a heart attack nearly two yrs ago!
I didn't think I would keep my license, but after a lot of dealings with dvla medical unit & my doctors, I passed as ok to drive, but they have put me on a 10 yr license, which I will have to prove as / if my illnesses have not worsened I can renew every 10 yr.

Chris.. :blink1:
 
Thats quite a list there Chris. I never realised what you had to content with.

Cheers Wayne, yeah it is a lot to cope with, but I have learned to get used to it a bit more now! It was a big shock to system to go from healthy go lucky, to slow lane ( only physically, can still use outside lane, ( rapidly
LOL ), in space of a cpl of months. Just hoping illnesses haven't worsened when time for licence renewal comes up, one good thing about 10 yr restriction is most insurance only take 1 & 3 yr restrictions into account. :amuse: It has only affected a few minor things with driving, ie: Can't drive manual due to arthritis in arm & leg, & most of the time can't turn to look through rear window reversing, have to rely on just mirrors.

Chris.. :blink1:

P.S. glad it was left leg foot affected & not right one :D
 
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Must try and keep fit - I just know my sedentry lifestyle is going to catch up with me.

Don't kid yourself ;) if there's one thing I have learned from the past 2 yrs is it can happen to anyone,anytime!!
Leading up to my heart attack I led a pretty healthy life, diet & exercise,I was doing an active outside job ( Countryside Ranger ) 37k p.a. so it wasn't
money stress! I got up that morning feeling fine, was walking across our residents car park, taking the kids to school. I just felt a bang in centre of chest ( I even looked down expecting blood, I thought I had been shot :sad2: ).
Apparently it was heart attack, collapsed lung & the other half filling with fluid. took me 3 days to agree to doc coming out,on wed when he cam told me " if I hadn't got him out, I wouldn't be here on saturday ".Then from there all my illnesses developed & progressed! :sad2::blink:
I wasn't overweight, had give up smoking 18 mnths before ( only used to smoke 50g a fortnight when I was smoking & only been smoking 15yrs), didn't drink, took regular exercise ( swimming & martial arts ) & not much stress worth mentioning.
So I think it must have just been fate, for whatever reason, must have been that pope I murdered in a past life! LOL. :amuse:
Like I said before was shocked (but happy ), that I got to keep license. :bigsmile:

Chris.. :blink1:
 
Chris, that's very open of you to share this. I, too have had health problems. I spent three years of my life signed off as a result of illness. Clinical depression. Yet my licence was never taken, despite the medication I was prescribed and took religiously. Maybe it was right to let me continue driving, the medication did not affect my ability. But the condition itself may well have done so. Thankfully I came out of it very well, with not RTA's to my name.
 
Nice one Hdi fun,good to hear you overcame it m8.
I had actually forgot ' clinical depression ', off my list oops!:embarrest:.
The part what shocked me, is I know a few peeps with illnesses same or similar to mine & they had licence revoked, or reduced a lot lower than mine 1 & 3 yrs. I think it was more the heart & diabetes would have stopped me closely followed with the spondylosis ( which only really affects me reversing) & arthritis which can affect my steering but my right arm is capable of correcting, luckily :amazed:. As for medication, a m8 said to me the other day " is that you rattling ", 31 meds a day, I replied " No!! I can't move that fast without the car" LOL.

Chris.. :blink1:
 
It's when you see an old person shuffling along really slowly and then getting into a car and driving off when you know they don't have the reflexes to react in an emergency and often they can't even turn round to check over their shoulder!

I think we all have relatives who drive who should really be encouraged to hang up their keys, but how do you tell them when their whole lives depend on the car?
 
It's when you see an old person shuffling along really slowly and then getting into a car and driving off when you know they don't have the reflexes to react in an emergency and often they can't even turn round to check over their shoulder!

I think we all have relatives who drive who should really be encouraged to hang up their keys, but how do you tell them when their whole lives depend on the car?

I have someone like that in my own family, to suggest to them that they really ought to hang up the car keys now and start to use their bus pass which is collecting dust on the sideboard, would only open up the floodgates to a whole mess of abuse, tears and anger! :sad2:
Unfortunately it is going to take something bad to happen before the wisdom is acknowledged and acted upon.
 

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