A new set of guidelines will help GPs and other healthcare practitioners better assess a person's ability to drive a motor vehicle by facilitating drivers in relation to their health.

The guidelines, which revise and replace the existing booklets, apply to commercial as well as private drivers.

The newly published Assessing fitness to drive 2003 is road-tested in the latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia by Fiona Landgren and Bruce Hocking, Project Coordinator for the National Road Transport Commission (NRTC).

Driving a motor vehicle is a complex task involving perception, good judgement, adequate response time and reasonable physical capability.  A range of medical conditions, as well as certain treatments, can impair any of these factors and can sometimes result in a crash causing injury or death.

The new guidelines - Medical examinations for commercial vehicle drivers (1997) and Assessing fitness to drive (2001) - are designed to help clinicians:

• Identify and manage patients who may not be capable of adequately controlling a vehicle (and who are thus a risk to public safety)
• Counsel patients regarding the effect of their condition on their driving ability
• Inform patients of their legal obligations to report long-term or permanent illnesses or injuries likely to affect their driving to the driver licensing authority, and
• If needed, because of inaction by the driver and immediate concerns about public safety, advise the driver licensing authority regarding the patient's fitness to drive.

The medical criteria are much more stringent for commercial drivers. They reflect the great risk posed by commercial vehicles on the road.

The guidelines cover legal, privacy and ethical issues across all States and Territories.

Developed by the NRTC in consultation with the medical profession, the licensing authorities, the trucking industry and unions, and community groups, Assessing fitness to drive 2003 will make a major contribution to road safety in Australia.

All Australian GPs will receive a copy of the guidelines in the mail in September.

An electronic version is available on the Austroads website at www.austroads.com.au. Also included on the website is patient information and an online health professional education module.

The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.

CONTACT:     Dr Bruce Hocking, 03 9809 1096 (B/H); 0412 881 271

                   Judith Tokley, AMA Public Affairs, 0408 824 306