June-09-2014 in Healthcare Law
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) recently published updated National Medical Fitness to Drive Guidelines for Group 1 (motorcycle/car/tractor) and Group 2(truck/bus) drivers.
These guidelines are intended to help doctors and other medical professionals in assessing fitness to drive and should be used by healthcare professionals when:
• Treating any patient who holds a driver licence whose condition may impact on the patient’s ability to drive safely.
• Undertaking an examination at the request of the National Driver Licence Service (NDLS):
• Assessing a patient whose driving the NDLS believes may be unsafe.
• For licence renewal of an older driver.
It is clear from the guidelines that a healthcare professional’s duty to consider medical fitness to drive is not simply confined to completing a medical report in conjunction to the patient’s application to drive (D501) but is an on-going obligation when treating patients with conditions which impact on the ability to drive safely.
Healthcare professional should understand that the Guidelines set out their role and responsibilities, which are potentially far reaching:
• To assess the person’s medical fitness to drive based on current medical standards (set out in legislation).
• To advise the person regarding the impact of their medical condition or disability on their ability to drive and recommend restrictions and ingoing monitoring as required.
• To advise the person of their responsibility to report their condition to the NDLS if there long term or permanent illness may affect their ability to drive safely.
• To treat, monitor and manage the person’s condition with on-going considerations of their fitness to drive.
• To report to the NDLS requiring a person’s fitness to drive and the exceptional circumstances where there is a risk to the public and a driver cannot or will not cease driving.
These are potentially significant obligations. A healthcare professional’s duty to consider a patient’s medical fitness to drive is not a one-off consideration but is an on-going duty. A wise doctor will routinely consider his or her patient’s medical fitness to drive in the context of on-going medical conditions, and as new conditions emerge. In many instances, a healthcare professional will have greater insight into the impact of a medical condition on a patient’s ability to drive than the patient him- or herself.
There is also a specific duty imposed on healthcare professionals to report to the NDLS about a person’s fitness to drive in exceptional circumstances where the person cannot or will not cease driving.
While the Guidelines do impose quite significant duties on healthcare professionals, drivers themselves are subject to obligations to report their own conditions, to respond truthfully to a healthcare professional’s questions about their health status and the likely impact on their driving ability, to adhered to their prescribed medical treatment and to comply with the requirements of their licence.
The Guidelines will have particular relevance for healthcare professionals treating conditions which are known to impact on medical fitness to drive and which are set out in the Guidelines, but will also play an important role in general practice.
We recommend that healthcare professionals make themselves familiar with the updated Guidelines on medical fitness to drive and keep a copy to hand. The issue of medical fitness to drive should be regularly considered, discussed with the patient if necessary and, crucially, all such discussions should be documented.
The guidelines are available on www.ndls.ie or www.rsa.ie.
For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the healthcare team.
Back to Full News