Five Surprising Medical Conditions You Should Legally Notify the DVLA About

Five Surprising Medical Conditions You Should Legally Notify the DVLA About

British drivers are being informed of some of the unlikely medical conditions they’d need to tell the DVLA about if they are ever diagnosed. Expert medical legal consultant come in a variety of forms, depending on the position they play in personal injury cases. Nurses, for example, can help patients understand medical diagnoses and explain the likely consequences and difficulties of those diagnoses.

The motoring experts at LeaseCar.uk have researched into the health conditions that drivers have a legal obligation to tell the DVLA about as they could affect their ability to drive – and some might be surprising.

Whilst severe conditions and major surgical operations obviously impact a person’s ability to drive and handle a vehicle safely, there are others that, on the surface, don’t seem like they’d have any detrimental effects.

But in fact, there are a range of unlikely illnesses and conditions that harbour side effects – from hearing loss to sleep depravity – that might affect your ability to control a car, van, or motorbike safely.

And if you don’t tell DVLA about a medical condition that affects your driving, you could be fined up to £1,000 and you may be prosecuted if you’re involved in an accident as a result.

A spokesperson for LeaseCar.uk said: “If you suffer a broken limb or severe head injury that affects your memory or ability to perform everyday tasks, you’re probably not going to be able to operate a vehicle safely either.

“In these cases, it seems obvious that you’d have to let the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency know about it.

“There are some conditions however, that seem too unrelated to even consider spending the time to fill out a form to tell the DVLA about.

“These are the kind of conditions we’ve listed below, to try and inform drivers and hopefully help many stay safe and avoid any fines – or even prosecution!”

Déjà vu
Surprisingly, GOV.UK lists déjà vu as one of the health conditions that could affect your driving. Whilst most people will regard déjà vu as a common experience in healthy individuals, it is also associated with certain types of epilepsy – this experience of déjà vu is a neurological anomaly related to epileptic electrical discharge in the brain. It is this medically induced déjà vu you need to inform the DVLA about.

Labyrinthitis
Labyrinthitis is a common inner ear infection that causes a delicate structure deep inside your ear (the labyrinth) to become inflamed. Symptoms can vary in severity, but usually get better after a few weeks. They can include mild headaches, some hearing loss, ear pain and vertigo. However, in some cases the symptoms can last longer and have a significant impact on your ability to carry out everyday tasks, so you should let the DVLA know.

Sleep Apnoea
Sleep apnoea is a relatively common condition where the walls of the throat relax and narrow during sleep, interrupting normal breathing. This may lead to regularly interrupted sleep, which can have a big impact on your quality of life, increase the risk of developing certain conditions, and even cause you to fall asleep at the wheel which is incredibly dangerous. It’s in these severe cases that you should get in contact with your GP/consultant for further advice and consider informing the DVLA.

Eating Disorders
Having an unhealthy attitude to food doesn’t seem like something that could affect your driving ability straight off the bat, yet there are severe cases that cause horrible side effects like being weak and dizzy. You must tell the DVLA if you suffer from an eating disorder (e.g. anorexia nervosa) and it affects your ability to drive safely. Speak to your doctor is you are unsure.

Arthritis
Arthritis is a common condition that causes pain and inflammation in a joint, with around 10 million people suffering from it across the UK. It can affect people of all ages, including children, and as the most commonly affected joints are those in the hands, spine, knees and hips – which obviously you all need full use of to be able to sit in a car and drive safely – so you should tell the DVLA if your condition affects your driving and has lasted more than three months.