How to make a complaint about the DVLA medical assessment process

advice pls about dvla medical

Convicted Driver Insurance

plum1713

New Member
Hi all.
Im in need of advice about my dvla medical. I was banned in jan 2012 for dd then got banned again 2 months after for dd again. Very stupid i no and wud never do this again. I got a 4yr ban, i went back to court last month to ask for my ban to be reduced due to starting a new job in june. The judge kindly reduced my ban to the 30th may. I have sent my application in and im waiting for details of my medical to come through to book it. I only drink at weekends so not to worried on the drinking aspect, the problem I now face is that I have been on 5mg of diazepam for 2 yrs due to anxiety not drinking problems.. I came off them a few weeks ago as I have read somewhere that the dvla cud refuse my licence cause of this. Does anyone know if this is true? Will the dvla contact my doctor with me having 2 dd so close together? My doctor said if they contact him he will say he thinks im fit to drive. Im just so worries that this could affect me getting my licence back, if I had of known this I would of stopped taking them sooner. Im not going to tell the dvla doctor that im on them cause im not anymore, just worried if they contact my doctor they will find out I was on them for so long and refuse me... thank you in advance for any advice
 
plum1713 said:
Hi all.
Im in need of advice about my dvla medical. I was banned in jan 2012 for dd then got banned again 2 months after for dd again. Very stupid i no and wud never do this again. I got a 4yr ban, i went back to court last month to ask for my ban to be reduced due to starting a new job in june. The judge kindly reduced my ban to the 30th may. I have sent my application in and im waiting for details of my medical to come through to book it. I only drink at weekends so not to worried on the drinking aspect, the problem I now face is that I have been on 5mg of diazepam for 2 yrs due to anxiety not drinking problems.. I came off them a few weeks ago as I have read somewhere that the dvla cud refuse my licence cause of this. Does anyone know if this is true? Will the dvla contact my doctor with me having 2 dd so close together? My doctor said if they contact him he will say he thinks im fit to drive. Im just so worries that this could affect me getting my licence back, if I had of known this I would of stopped taking them sooner. Im not going to tell the dvla doctor that im on them cause im not anymore, just worried if they contact my doctor they will find out I was on them for so long and refuse me... thank you in advance for any advice
Click to expand...

If you take a look at the At a glance guide to the current medical standards of fitness to drive produced by the DVLA you will see that under section 5 which details relevant drug misuse and dependence issues regarding licensing, there is a section devoted to benzodiazepines which states the following:

"The prescribed use of these drugs at therapeutic doses (BNF), without evidence of impairment, does not amount to misuse/dependence for licensing purposes"

As you were prescribed diazepam at a low dosage and if you still were prescribed diazepam at 5mg a day then this fact alone would not be grounds for the DVLA to refuse to issue you with a driving licence. You would only encounter problems if you were obtaining and consuming benzodiazepines illegally or you were being prescribed a high dosage which would clearly impair your ability to drive a vehicle.
 
plum1713 said:
Hi all.
Im in need of advice about my dvla medical. I was banned in jan 2012 for dd then got banned again 2 months after for dd again. Very stupid i no and wud never do this again. I got a 4yr ban, i went back to court last month to ask for my ban to be reduced due to starting a new job in june. The judge kindly reduced my ban to the 30th may. I have sent my application in and im waiting for details of my medical to come through to book it. I only drink at weekends so not to worried on the drinking aspect, the problem I now face is that I have been on 5mg of diazepam for 2 yrs due to anxiety not drinking problems.. I came off them a few weeks ago as I have read somewhere that the dvla cud refuse my licence cause of this. Does anyone know if this is true? Will the dvla contact my doctor with me having 2 dd so close together? My doctor said if they contact him he will say he thinks im fit to drive. Im just so worries that this could affect me getting my licence back, if I had of known this I would of stopped taking them sooner. Im not going to tell the dvla doctor that im on them cause im not anymore, just worried if they contact my doctor they will find out I was on them for so long and refuse me... thank you in advance for any advice
Click to expand...

With the 2 convictions, I think that DVLA will ask about your medical history, and you should be honest about it, because if you miss out about the diazepam and they then check with your doctor it does not look good if you have misled them.
5mg is a small dose, and I do not think that DVLA would view that as a reason for refusal.
 
Thank you so much for your replies. I thought it should be ok with it being such a small dose but it says if there has been dependancy then you would need to be clean off them for 1 year. Im not on them now but with me being on them for 2 years wouldnt that be classed as dependancy? Im so so worried. Thanks
 
plum1713 said:
Thank you so much for your replies. I thought it should be ok with it being such a small dose but it says if there has been dependancy then you would need to be clean off them for 1 year. Im not on them now but with me being on them for 2 years wouldnt that be classed as dependancy? Im so so worried. Thanks
Click to expand...

If you read what the Mod pointed you towards, it differentiates between dependancy and a therapeutic dose. Were you on a much higher does , then reducing to 5mg? You seemed to indicate that 5mg was all you had ever been on? If it has only ever been 5mg, I very much doubt anyone would call that a dose that indicates a dependancy which would affect your driving.
 
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I satrted off on 2mg for a few months then went to 5mg. Just 1 tablet per day but didnt always take them everyday more just when I felt anxious. Never been on a higher dose
 
Stop worrying, or you will be back on them! You should be fine.
 
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