{"id":13456,"date":"2019-08-01T15:35:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T14:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/?p=13456"},"modified":"2019-08-01T15:35:36","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T14:35:36","slug":"gps-may-soon-have-to-report-signs-of-dementia-to-the-dvla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/2019\/08\/gps-may-soon-have-to-report-signs-of-dementia-to-the-dvla\/","title":{"rendered":"GPs May Soon Have to Report Signs of Dementia to the DVLA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Signs
Signs of Dementia and DVLA – Speedyreg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conservative MP Rachel Maclean is backing a Bill that calls for diagnosed dementia sufferers to retake their driving test. Currently, a third of people with dementia still drive a car which poses an issue for road safety. Currently, the system places the onus on the patient themselves. If you suffer from dementia, or any other medical condition that could adversely affect your driving ability, you are legally obliged to inform the DVLA<\/a>. Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to \u00a31000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dementia can severely affect ability to drive <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dementia affects different patients in different ways, but\ncommon symptoms are a lack of attention, a failure to concentrate, slow\nreactions, an inability to concentrate and a lack of spatial awareness. These\nare all very important aspects of driving safely. So you can see how suffering\nfrom dementia could lead to a dangerous situation on the roads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self reporting dementia is not a reliable system<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with the current system, is that it can be hard\nfor individuals to judge their own ability to drive, or for many people, the\nneed to drive makes them reluctant to report their medical conditions, for fear\nof having their license taken away, and therefore part of their independence.\nOf course in some cases, a patient may be unaware that they have dementia and\nso the system of self reporting easily falls down, both in these cases and in\nsevere cases where a patient is unable to follow the process. These proposed\nnew rules could have a benefit for families of dementia patients as often they\nhave grave concerns that their relative is not fit to drive but cannot persuade\nthem to give it up. In such cases, the families would only need the word of a\nGP to have their relative assessed and their minds put at ease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safety on the roads must be a priority<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a new regime, a GP would be legally obliged to inform the DVLA <\/a>when a diagnosis of dementia has been made. The case would then be assessed for the patients fitness to drive and the GP could be able to insist that the patient takes a new driving test. The balance between patient confidentiality and the protection of the general public and indeed the patient themselves is a tricky one, but a new law could set down clear guidelines that will ensure that everyone on the road is safe to be there. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conservative MP Rachel Maclean is backing a Bill that calls for diagnosed dementia sufferers to retake their driving test. Currently, a third of people with dementia still drive a car which poses an issue for road safety. Currently, the system places the onus on the patient themselves. If you suffer from dementia, or any other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":13457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[137,136],"tags":[1720,306],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13458,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13456\/revisions\/13458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedyreg.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}