Doctors urged to learn about driving fitness

Monday January 18th, 2010

Doctors need more training in the need to tell patients they may have to give up driving, researchers have warned.

Just 7.5 per cent of healthcare professionals were able to correctly identify unfit drivers, in research conducted by Warwick University Medical School.

And 75 per cent failed to consider whether a patient should be taking the wheel when presented with a scenario involving a patient unfit to drive.

The Medical School undertook the study for the UK department for transport.

Some 1,519 health care professionals and 358 patients took part in the research.

When asked, 40 per cent of the professionals conceded they did not have enough knowledge of Fitness to Drive guidelines issued by the UK vehicle licensing authority.

Researcher Dr Carol Hawley said doctors received little tuition on driving fitness when they were training.

Conditions such as visual impairment and severe diabetes may disqualify a patient from driving.

During the research, the professionals were given paper studies of patients and asked to decide whether they were medically unfit to drive, fit to drive or on the borderline. Just 7.5 per cent were able to do this correctly.

Dr Hawley said: "Although the information is there and results suggest healthcare professionals are aware of the DVLA fitness to drive guidelines, they had a poor knowledge of how the guidelines applied to specific conditions.

"There is also uncertainty about which groups of healthcare professionals are responsible for informing a patient about how their condition can affect their ability to drive.

"Interviews with patients revealed that only one third of them had been advised about their fitness to drive without having to ask for advice."

Tags: Eye Health | General Health | UK News

Printer friendly page