Jobsworth DVLA, Hypoglycaemia and License Renewal

[stuart264]

I am having major problems with the DVLA at the moment, I medically surrendered my driving license about 5 years ago because I wasn't driving and to be honest I was finding the Medical Section a major pain to deal with.

My circumstances have changed and despite being on Insulin now I need to drive occasionally and I wanted my driving license back. The problem is that up until this week I wasn't aware of the legal changes about diabetes and honestly used one of the DVLA leaflets to fill out the DIAB1 form and declared some hypoglycemic attacks I suffered at night in bed with my partner in August last year that were caused inadvertently when my nurse practitioner changed my long acting insulin from Levemir to Lantus and telling me incorrectly to inject the same number of units I was using,

i freely admit that in doing so I made a mistake and once I got the letter dated the 15th June telling me about suspending my license for 12 months I have been trying and failing to put matters right, I have admitted in writing to the DVLA that I made a mistake in declaring hypoglycemic attacks which did not fall within the definition of "severe hypoglycemic attacks" and considering that I made the mistake based on the information in one of their leaflets (INF188/2) you would have thought common sense would have kicked in.

To cut a very long story short after multiple calls to that appalling call centre and despite calling the Drivers Medical Group being unable to talk to anyone because they don't transfer calls and repeated managers saying that they wont take the details to pass on to the medical section because they are not medically trained I am finally dealing with both the medical section and the complaints department

(If anyone is interested have got them to admit that the phone number for the Drivers Medical Group is handled by the general call centre and only certain staff have medical training, how that complies with the laws about medical confidentiality god knows, but having dealt with them for the last week you can be sure the excuse is flimsy and exceptionally slimy)

My question is this I spoke to one of the managers in the medical section on friday who called me back and they have asked me to re-apply and submit on fax a DIAB1 Questionnaire and a fresh application on form D1 (Application for Driving License),now considering I have issues that need dealing with by the DVLA would I be giving up any legal rights or passively accepting a mistaken driving ban if I resubmitted the D1 or should I just fax them over an updated copy of the medical questionnaire

 

[urbanracer]

I

I am having major problems with the DVLA at the moment, I medically surrendered my driving license about 5 years ago because I wasn't driving and to be honest I was finding the Medical Section a major pain to deal with.

My circumstances have changed and despite being on Insulin now I need to drive occasionally and I wanted my driving license back. The problem is that up until this week I wasn't aware of the legal changes about diabetes and honestly used one of the DVLA leaflets to fill out the DIAB1 form and declared some hypoglycemic attacks I suffered at night in bed with my partner in August last year that were caused inadvertently when my nurse practitioner changed my long acting insulin from Levemir to Lantus and telling me incorrectly to inject the same number of units I was using,

i freely admit that in doing so I made a mistake and once I got the letter dated the 15th June telling me about suspending my license for 12 months I have been trying and failing to put matters right, I have admitted in writing to the DVLA that I made a mistake in declaring hypoglycemic attacks which did not fall within the definition of "severe hypoglycemic attacks" and considering that I made the mistake based on the information in one of their leaflets (INF188/2) you would have thought common sense would have kicked in.

To cut a very long story short after multiple calls to that appalling call centre and despite calling the Drivers Medical Group being unable to talk to anyone because they don't transfer calls and repeated managers saying that they wont take the details to pass on to the medical section because they are not medically trained I am finally dealing with both the medical section and the complaints department

(If anyone is interested have got them to admit that the phone number for the Drivers Medical Group is handled by the general call centre and only certain staff have medical training, how that complies with the laws about medical confidentiality god knows, but having dealt with them for the last week you can be sure the excuse is flimsy and exceptionally slimy)

My question is this I spoke to one of the managers in the medical section on friday who called me back and they have asked me to re-apply and submit on fax a DIAB1 Questionnaire and a fresh application on form D1 (Application for Driving License),now considering I have issues that need dealing with by the DVLA would I be giving up any legal rights or passively accepting a mistaken driving ban if I resubmitted the D1 or should I just fax them over an updated copy of the medical questionnaire

I remember a period when the DVLA were routinely removing the motorcycle group when you sent your licence in for any reason such as passing the car test or even a change of adress. They would ask for the certificate of having passed the motorcycle test before re-instating the motorcycle group. When it was pointed out that the certifiacate was sent to them when the original test was passed, their response was to tell the rider to take the motorcycle test again. There was one well reported case where a Police motorcyclist lost his right to ride a motorcycle and even a letter from his chief constable proved innefective.

They can be very intractable, so if it were me and I wanted my license back quickly I'd swallow my pride and take the easy route. You presumably have the name of a manager to talk to now anyway.

 

[AndBreathe]

I am having major problems with the DVLA at the moment, I medically surrendered my driving license about 5 years ago because I wasn't driving and to be honest I was finding the Medical Section a major pain to deal with.

My circumstances have changed and despite being on Insulin now I need to drive occasionally and I wanted my driving license back. The problem is that up until this week I wasn't aware of the legal changes about diabetes and honestly used one of the DVLA leaflets to fill out the DIAB1 form and declared some hypoglycemic attacks I suffered at night in bed with my partner in August last year that were caused inadvertently when my nurse practitioner changed my long acting insulin from Levemir to Lantus and telling me incorrectly to inject the same number of units I was using,

i freely admit that in doing so I made a mistake and once I got the letter dated the 15th June telling me about suspending my license for 12 months I have been trying and failing to put matters right, I have admitted in writing to the DVLA that I made a mistake in declaring hypoglycemic attacks which did not fall within the definition of "severe hypoglycemic attacks" and considering that I made the mistake based on the information in one of their leaflets (INF188/2) you would have thought common sense would have kicked in.

To cut a very long story short after multiple calls to that appalling call centre and despite calling the Drivers Medical Group being unable to talk to anyone because they don't transfer calls and repeated managers saying that they wont take the details to pass on to the medical section because they are not medically trained I am finally dealing with both the medical section and the complaints department

(If anyone is interested have got them to admit that the phone number for the Drivers Medical Group is handled by the general call centre and only certain staff have medical training, how that complies with the laws about medical confidentiality god knows, but having dealt with them for the last week you can be sure the excuse is flimsy and exceptionally slimy)

My question is this I spoke to one of the managers in the medical section on friday who called me back and they have asked me to re-apply and submit on fax a DIAB1 Questionnaire and a fresh application on form D1 (Application for Driving License),now considering I have issues that need dealing with by the DVLA would I be giving up any legal rights or passively accepting a mistaken driving ban if I resubmitted the D1 or should I just fax them over an updated copy of the medical questionnaire

I am not T1, so have never had to joust with the DVLA in relation to these matters.

On what basis do you consider you could be giving up any rights by complying with the request for a fax? Is this a copy of what you have already sent? A re-completed form, without the mistaken declarations or something completely different?

What is the purpose of sending that paperwork?

I'm sorry, I followed it all, right up until your final paragraph, when I couldn't clearly understand what you are saying..

 

[stuart264]

Because I don't want to give the DVLA the easy way out as I am within the 8 week period where I can re-apply anyway and because I have legitimate complaints the complaints department could I as suspect dismiss them because they have to give me my license back at the end of the month.

 

[AndBreathe]

I'm sorry. I'm not quite following your train of thought, so I'll dip out now, before I ask inflammatory questions.

I do hope you get your license back

 

[stuart264]

Your not going to inflame the situation, I am just not prepared to be treated in the way that the DVLA think is acceptable customer service.

 

[stuart264]

You are right that I filled out a form which i signed and declared as true saying that I suffered hypos, first communication I got was the letter from the DVLA pulling my license.

The evidence I have provided them is a statement in a letter correcting the form, apologising for the mistake I honestly made as I wasnt aware at the time I filled in the form the difference between hypoglycemic attacks which I don't have to declare and severe hypoglycemic attacks which I do have to declare. I read a DVLA leaflet that wasn't particularly clear and made a mistake, it happens.

Actual medical evidence to back all this up, is proving a problem to obtain, the dosage error was sorted out by one of the nurse practitioners at the local diabetes team but I was in the middle of changing GP's because my old GP was down to one part time diabetes practitioner that only worked 2 half days a week and right now nobody knows where the paperwork is and the DVLA are again aware of this.

The DVLA initially said fine that they would accept the letter and it would take a couple of days to sort out, then when I hadnt heard anything for 2 weeks I called to chase it up and was told that it was with a team with an 11 week backlog and they would try and progress it and come back to me, thats the point everything went wrong

My complaint that's in with the DVLA is really about poor customer service, in a nutshell you have a call centre with staff that are not empowered to make decisions blocking people from talking or dealing with the people that are, and while I know and respect their role is one of a gatekeeper, in reality its one of guard dog or firewall.

 

[tigger]

It sounds odd to me. I had my license revoked 3 years ago because I made a mistake on filling the form on the disabling hypo question (got the dates wrong). In order to sort this out I had to get a letter from my consultant to say all was fine. That took ages and much chasing from me. It was all dealt with under the same application though. I would imagine your process should be the same given the facts. I'd suggest before you do anything you get them to confirm in writing that that is what they want you to do so they can't refuse the license on administrative grounds. I'm sure you can still follow a complaint process although I doubt it will have much effect .....