Motorists and lorry drivers utilizing non-public firms to signal them off as match to get behind the wheel might have a “grave affect on street security”, the British Medical Affiliation has warned.
The BMA has written to the Division for Transport to say that drivers had been more and more utilizing non-public suppliers to log off “match to drive” medicals due to an enormous backlog with GPs.
GPs usually perform the checks, that are obligatory for brand new licence candidates and should be renewed each 5 years by HGV drivers over the age of 45. The checks had been designated as much less of a precedence for GPs in the course of the pandemic.
The BMA mentioned that guidelines should be tightened in order that solely a driver’s personal GP can log off the checks as a result of they’ve entry to an applicant’s full medical data.
Motorists could also be understating their medical circumstances and being allowed to drive once they should not be, the BMA mentioned.
Dr Peter Holden, BMA Skilled Charges Committee chair, mentioned: “Throughout the nation, 1000’s of drivers require medical ‘match to drive’ log off in an effort to acquire or renew their drivers’ licence.
“We all know that a few of these drivers, conscious of the present DVLA backlog, are bypassing the queue at their very own GP observe and going to third-party registered medical practitioners.
“The difficulty right here is that solely a person’s GP practices has entry to a affected person’s full medical document, so solely they know whether or not or not that particular person is match to drive.
“By searching for ‘sign-off’ from an unbiased practitioner, who solely has the affected person’s phrase to go by, there is a threat that medical circumstances could also be, both deliberately or unintendedly, understated and this has already had a grave affect on street security.”
A spokesperson for the Drivers and Car Licence Authority (DVLA) welcomed the BMA’s intervention.
“By regulation, all drivers should meet medical requirements for health always, and there are further checks for bus and lorry drivers,” the DVLA mentioned.
“Now we have plans in place to scale back the present backlog of medical purposes by bringing in further employees and night shifts, and are additionally engaged on further measures to extend our surge capability and assist course of purposes sooner.”
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