As a doctor in Queensland, you play a key role in determining fitness to drive for your patients using the national Assessing Fitness to Drive medical standards. This includes recommending when we need to apply conditions or restrictions on someone’s driver licence.
Read more about your role.
In Queensland, drivers have a legal responsibility to be medically fit to drive. For us to decide if someone can continue to drive, we encourage them to seek your advice and ask you to complete a Medical Certificate for Driver (F3712) form.
You can follow this guide to help you do this.
The Assessing Fitness to Drive standards set out the medical criteria for safe driving and what you need to consider. The standards are grouped into:
The standard that you need to use depends on the type of vehicle, type of licence, and the purpose for which the patient is planning to drive.
Read the following to help decide which standard to use to assess a patient.
You should apply the private standards to drivers who hold or are applying for a:
However, if your patient also holds or is applying for any of the licences or authorities listed in the following commercial vehicle standards section then you must assess the patient using the commercial standard.
Driving a commercial vehicle has greater risks, so higher health standards apply to drivers.
You must apply the commercial standards to drivers applying for or holding:
A driver who does not meet the medical standards for a commercial vehicle licence may still be eligible for a private vehicle licence.
When you assess a patient's fitness to drive, you must follow the standards in the current edition of Austroads Assessing Fitness to Drive. These standards provide guidance about how a mental or physical incapacity may affect a person’s ability to drive safely.
When you assess how a medical condition or disability affects your patient’s driving, consider:
We encourage you to use our Private and Commercial Vehicle Driver’s Health Assessment (F3195) form as a tool to guide your medical assessment. If you choose to use the form, you should retain it with the patient’s medical records.
Health Pathways on the Queensland Health website may also assist you to manage common medical conditions for fitness to drive.
We require everyone 75 or older to carry a medical certificate for motor vehicle drivers whenever they drive. Some of these people may not have a medical condition. Using the general guidelines in the Assessing fitness to drive standards can be helpful.
Symptoms that are short term or only happen sometimes can also affect safe driving. You should assess these using the standards for temporary conditions in the Assessing Fitness to Drive
If the condition is temporary, the patient does not need to notify us. However, the patient must follow any recommended non-driving periods.
The Assessing Fitness to Drive standards specify when you must refer a patient to a relevant specialist.
You can also refer a patient to a specialist, if you need more information to make your recommendation to us. Complete the medical certificate after the specialist assesses the patient and provides you with their advice.
Sometimes, there may be a delay in getting an appointment to see a specialist. While your patient waits to see the specialist, they may want to keep driving. Learn when you can issue an interim medical certificate to allow your patient to keep driving until their appointment
You can refer your patient to an occupational therapist for a practical driving assessment. This can be helpful where:
Read about completing an interim medical certificate so your patient can do the driver assessment.
Our role is to make decisions about who can drive on Queensland roads, balancing a person's need to drive and road safety.
As Queensland's driver licensing authority, we make the final decision about your patient’s driver licence and their continued driving. We base our decision on your assessment of their medical condition.
You may recommend one of the following. Your patient:
If the person meets the criteria for an unconditional licence, this means they’ll have:
Examples of why you may recommend an unconditional licence include when the person:
If the patient is 75 years or older, they must carry a current Medical Certificate for Motor Vehicle Drivers whenever they drive even though they may have an unconditional licence.
A conditional licence allows the driver to maintain a driver licence with conditions on holding that licence to ensure public safety.
You can recommend that we issue a conditional licence for patients who have a condition listed in the Assessing Fitness To Drive standards that is likely to make their driving less safe, but whose medical treatments, vehicle or driving modifications enables them to drive safely.
If the patient meets the medical criteria for a conditional licence, this means they:
You must only recommend licence conditions and restrictions on the person's medical certificate that the police can enforce.
Examples of licence conditions that the police can enforce are:
Examples of licence conditions that the police can’t enforce are:
If you have assessed your patient as permanently not fit to drive, this means they must surrender their driver licence.
If your patient is over 75, chat with them about support services to help them adapt to life without driving.
You can also specify a time range that your patient is not medically fit to drive on the Medical Certificate for Drivers form.
Your patient must let us know the outcome of your assessment and give us a copy of your medical certificate for drivers form.
Read about what to do if you don't think they will tell us.
The Assessing Fitness to Drive standards sets review periods you must apply when deciding on an expiry date to record on the Medical Certificate for Motor Vehicle Driver.
The expiry date must be within the maximum review period. However, you can decide you need to review the person’s condition more often and make the expiry date shorter than the specified review period.
Complete the Medical Certificate for Driver (F3712) form with your patient's information and what you recommend based on your medical assessment. Only include relevant information on the form. You do not need to include your patient’s diagnosis on the form.
We’ll consider any changes we need to make to their driver licence based on your advice.
Give your patient the medical certificate form, and keep a copy with their medical records.
Your patient needs to give us their medical certificate form.
You can refer them to our information on how to report a medical condition or explain the options they have to submit the form to us, including using our online service.
If you believe that a patient is unlikely to notify us about their medical condition and will continue to drive against your medical advice, you are encouraged to notify us. Read about when you should report your patient’s medical condition direct to us.
We'll let your patient keep driving until they see a specialist if:
Assessing fitness to drive, 16 Jan 2025, [https://oss-uat.clients.squiz.net/transport/licensing/healthy-to-drive/for-health-professionals/assessing-fitness-to-drive]
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