DVLA Still Waiting On Urine Results / Complaints Advice

Convicted Driver Insurance

artsalesman

Member
To Whom It May Concern,

I received an 18 month driving ban in September 2017, which expired early 2019. I was living in London at this point and had no need for a car so I didn’t reapply for my licence. Due to COVID-19, I moved back to my parents’ house in Bedfordshire and sent off my application on April 23rd 2020. The cheque attached to the application cleared on 29th of June 2020. I didn’t receive a physical reply to this for months due to the DVLA contact centre being closed for COVID.

I eventually received a letter from the DVLA stating that they had written to my GP (Fernlea Surgery, Tottenham) for more information but that it may take up to 12 weeks to receive a reply. This then started a back and forth between the DVLA and my GP that lasted months. Multiple letters and emails were “lost” or not received in both directions, and instead of one party just calling the other I was left to mediate the whole thing. And of course having to wait on hold for ages every single time. I didn’t want to change my registered GP to a more local one in the middle of things because the whole process on the DVLA’s side seemed so fragile (postal applications only; payment by cheque only!)

I have a note on my computer documenting the latter half of this process with eight separate contact dates on it spanning a month, and this didn’t include all of the times I called the DVLA or my GP. This back-and-forth continued from the time I received the original letter until I escalated to the management of my GP and the manager sent the questionnaire to the DVLA on November the 20th 2020. They also completed the form incorrectly stating that I had alcohol dependency issues, which was never the case (the ban wasn’t even related to alcohol, it was drugs) and as a result I had to fill out a lot of alcohol-related forms both before and at my medical. I called the DVLA explaining this but it made no difference.

Next, I received a letter from the DVLA on the 2nd of December stating that I would need a medical, as expected. I was told that I would have to use the Portmill Surgery in nearby Hitchin. However every single time I called them they had no availability and were unable to let me know when they would have some. As a result I had to call them every few days, mostly to be told the same thing each time.

After about two months of this, I got to the point where a medical was available but it would be outside of the 12 week window stated by my initial DVLA medical letter. I then called the DVLA to see if this would still be ok. I explained what had happened and then the DVLA employee put me on hold, only to come back and tell me that they were no longer using the Portmill Surgery for medicals and could not explain why. Thanks for the heads up; two months wasted! I was then able to get a medical booked at a different surgery for April 19th, which I attended. The doctor told me it would be roughly six weeks before I heard anything.

Today is eight weeks since. I called the DVLA this morning (around 50 times across two phones, to get past the “unable to take your call” message) only to be told that the DVLA have received the blood test results but they are still awaiting the results for the urine test, and that all we can do is wait. I have to say that this does nothing to set my heart at ease. I sincerely have absolutely no reason to fail either the blood or urine test. I’m just nervous at the prospect of having to book another medical and waiting all this time again if the urine test has been lost.

Does anyone have any experience with one part of the medical being held up? Or with a sample being lost? Fingers crossed it all goes through but two months seems an awfully long time for something like this to go smoothly. I hope I'm wrong.

I also complained to the DVLA with essentially the same wall of text this morning. Is this likely to help at all?

The application process will soon be the length of the ban. It’s already been far more stressful. To counter the ban, I moved to London which alleviated any transport problems and was relatively simple. This application has taken up an inordinate amount of time and continues to do so.

Thanks in advance!
 
To Whom It May Concern,

I received an 18 month driving ban in September 2017, which expired early 2019. I was living in London at this point and had no need for a car so I didn’t reapply for my licence. Due to COVID-19, I moved back to my parents’ house in Bedfordshire and sent off my application on April 23rd 2020. The cheque attached to the application cleared on 29th of June 2020. I didn’t receive a physical reply to this for months due to the DVLA contact centre being closed for COVID.

I eventually received a letter from the DVLA stating that they had written to my GP (Fernlea Surgery, Tottenham) for more information but that it may take up to 12 weeks to receive a reply. This then started a back and forth between the DVLA and my GP that lasted months. Multiple letters and emails were “lost” or not received in both directions, and instead of one party just calling the other I was left to mediate the whole thing. And of course having to wait on hold for ages every single time. I didn’t want to change my registered GP to a more local one in the middle of things because the whole process on the DVLA’s side seemed so fragile (postal applications only; payment by cheque only!)

I have a note on my computer documenting the latter half of this process with eight separate contact dates on it spanning a month, and this didn’t include all of the times I called the DVLA or my GP. This back-and-forth continued from the time I received the original letter until I escalated to the management of my GP and the manager sent the questionnaire to the DVLA on November the 20th 2020. They also completed the form incorrectly stating that I had alcohol dependency issues, which was never the case (the ban wasn’t even related to alcohol, it was drugs) and as a result I had to fill out a lot of alcohol-related forms both before and at my medical. I called the DVLA explaining this but it made no difference.

Next, I received a letter from the DVLA on the 2nd of December stating that I would need a medical, as expected. I was told that I would have to use the Portmill Surgery in nearby Hitchin. However every single time I called them they had no availability and were unable to let me know when they would have some. As a result I had to call them every few days, mostly to be told the same thing each time.

After about two months of this, I got to the point where a medical was available but it would be outside of the 12 week window stated by my initial DVLA medical letter. I then called the DVLA to see if this would still be ok. I explained what had happened and then the DVLA employee put me on hold, only to come back and tell me that they were no longer using the Portmill Surgery for medicals and could not explain why. Thanks for the heads up; two months wasted! I was then able to get a medical booked at a different surgery for April 19th, which I attended. The doctor told me it would be roughly six weeks before I heard anything.

Today is eight weeks since. I called the DVLA this morning (around 50 times across two phones, to get past the “unable to take your call” message) only to be told that the DVLA have received the blood test results but they are still awaiting the results for the urine test, and that all we can do is wait. I have to say that this does nothing to set my heart at ease. I sincerely have absolutely no reason to fail either the blood or urine test. I’m just nervous at the prospect of having to book another medical and waiting all this time again if the urine test has been lost.

Does anyone have any experience with one part of the medical being held up? Or with a sample being lost? Fingers crossed it all goes through but two months seems an awfully long time for something like this to go smoothly. I hope I'm wrong.

I also complained to the DVLA with essentially the same wall of text this morning. Is this likely to help at all?

The application process will soon be the length of the ban. It’s already been far more stressful. To counter the ban, I moved to London which alleviated any transport problems and was relatively simple. This application has taken up an inordinate amount of time and continues to do so.

Thanks in advance!
You've really been dragged through the shit house. I think its high time DVLA were held to account and made responsible for the inadequacies. Whatever your profession is, if you've served your ban then you've served your ban. All of this after nonsense is exactly that, it's a smoke screen to hide DVLA's incompetence. If you suffer financially and emotionally (as most of us do) then they should be forced to recompense for that. Say as an HGV driver my average take home was 800 a week. Then for every week DVLA should compensate me for every penny I have lost. There are many on here hat have suffered mentally as a result of DVLA and GP incompetence. We should be able to bring civil cases against DVLA. If ever this were allowed?
You just watch, how competent DVLA become.
I feel for you I really do, and hope you get a bit of good luck and it all sorts itself out for you.
 
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