DVLA Revoked licence re diabetes. Reasons not true. WWYD ?

[Oblomov]

DVLA sent letter to say that my licence has been revoked. Came back from 10 days holiday yesterday, to this. Such a shock. Diabetic consultant reviews me, fills out form. Ring her. On a sunday. She's not impressed. But then neither am I !!
She seems very dismissive. 'Oh well, we can come up with a plan to persuade them that we can make things better, lets meet in a week'.
But she never said she had concerns at the time of filling the form out.My dh is not happy.
I can not get to work. It is only a 20 minute commute, by car. But takes over 2 hours on the train, with 3 changes.
Plus, there is no valid reason.
The form says that I have lost awareness of an impending hypo, thus I could be dangerous to drive. That I have lost my warning signs. But this is not true. My warning signs are as good as ever, in fact have got a tiny bit better over the last month, 3 months and 6 months.
My dh spoke to the consultant aswell, and said he had no concerns at all.

But I feel so powerless. someone , somewhere has ticked a box , by accident, saying no, when really the answer is yes.
But my work will go mad. I can't work. I may lose my job. I am supposed to drive to the hospital tomorrow to finalise ds1's Aspergers diagnosis letter.
This is a nightmare, and I am not sure what to do.

Have you checked the DVLA website thoroughly to see if anything has changed recently?
Can you get a second opinion from another diabetic consultant, since your one seems a bit lackadaisical about the whole situation and how it's affecting your life and wellbeing?
Can you phone the DVLA in the morning and find out exactly why they have decided to revoke it now when nothing has changed?
Can you get a copy of the form that the consultant filled in about you, so it shows wtf happened?

Apart from that you're going to need to organise a taxi to get you around in the interim. Do you need to drive for your work, or only to get to work? Hopefully the latter, in which case it's going to be expensive for a few days but with a bit of luck you'll be able to get everything ironed out this week.

So sorry your holiday mood has been spoilt like this.

Thanks thumbwitch. You are of course right. I will do all those things. No its only driving TO work really. No colleague lives near me. Dh says I will have to phone work and tell them that I can't come. Taxi would be £45-55 one way. I know becasue I investigated this before, when I was on mat leave.

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This won't help you straight away but if they don't reinstate your licence you might be able to get help from access to work. My colleague gets her taxi to and from work paid through this.

Phoned Gp. Spoke locum, she said she couldn't help. My gp is on holiday for another week. Great.
Phoned DVLA. Told me what number on form the question comes from. I wrote it down. Told her I thought this was wrong. She said I need my Consultant to write a letter and it will be looked at. No idea how long this will take.
Rang consultants secretary, and left a message, no response as yet.
Rang work. Told them only what the situation was. HR will ring me back apparently.
Asked my neighbour to take me, but he can't committ to regularly.
Phoned CAMHS and we did the revision to ds1's daignosis letter over the phone, so atleast thats something.
I rang one of the mums and she has picked ds1 up and will bring him home again. Has been torrential rain all day. so that really helped.

Feel so sad. The letter says I must wait 12 months before re-applying for my licence back. 12 mths seems so long. And I find driving gives me so much freedom and independance.
So very sad. I have cried. But I guess the consultant must have her reasons, I am trying to understand her point of view.
I feel she should have told me about her concerns, not filled out the forms, kept me in the dark of her concerns and then to have this sprung on me. She should have told me herself.

Thanks Ben10, I am looking at that link.

I just spoke to access to work. They can't help. And he told me all the reasons why, how I didn't fit the eliibilty section, and to be honest I had to agree. So thats no good. Shame.

:(

What a bunch of shite. :(

Very un-mny hugs from this direction.

My mum's been Type I for nearly 35 years. She's a fucking shocking driver (foot almost permanently on clutch ) but that has bollocks all to do with her diabetes and she's never had a hypo at the wheel. I'm sure your's is pretty similar to her's in that she gets more than enough warning to pull over and stop if she's feeling "odd". :( What a bunch of wankers.

A friend had to surrender his licence after a head injury. He's absolutely fine but his consultant hasn't done the paperwork for him to get it back yet (though she agrees he's OK). He was able to get a "temporary licence" (just a letter) from the DVLA to allow him to drive; worth a try?

I have this every so many years, different condition but similar process and similarly unfair outcome. My approach, historically, was to keep driving anyway (which is obviously not advisable) but last year I complied and grumbled like fuck about it. I hate the way almost everyone assumes it must be the correct decision and you should just knuckle down and accept it, as if mistakes are never made.

My husband and I had 2 long phone calls with consultant yesterday afternoon. She told dh 3 times that it was sunday. She said she had had concerns at the time , of filling out the form, in april. News to me.
She did say that she had told the dvla that I hadn't had a hypo for atleast 3 months. That I do test before I drive. So I can't actually see what the risk is, myself.
She is concerned about my warning signs. But dh assured her, that he was not.
She said she didn't think that there was much she could do. She suggested to dh that HE wrote to the dvla to say he had no concerns. WHAT ???
He is a just a layman( as it were) and holds no clout with them. But she does. she is the consultant. she filled out the form. It is her responsibility.
I feel like she is just shirking all her responsibilities.

Oblomov,

You have a right to appeal decisions by the DVLA. There will be a time limit so check and lodge your appeal.
Get a recommendation for a solicitor who is experienced in dealing with these kinds of tribunal and avail yourself of a free half-hour consultation.

Sorry this has happened to you - but a bit surprised that you were able to speak to your consultant on a Sunday?

In fairness, if she wasn't at work then she may not have responded as fully as she might do when she has your file in front of her and is in work mode.

what were her concerns in April? other than she thought you were losing your warning signs?

what was she basing her assumption re: loss of warning signs on? you (and your dh) said you weren't. I have not the first idea about diabetes - but if you say you aren't, and your dh says you aren't - is there any way she could work out you are?

did you ask why she didn't raise her concerns with you? did she ever give you any impression other than she would fill in the form, as she has done ever other year (I assume)?

did she actually refuse to write to DVLA? are hr concerns that strong?

would you be able to get a second opinion form another consultant? or another appt with her to go through in detail what is going on here?

Thanks for all the nice replies.
I have rung the dvla again. no temp licence. didn't think there would be. only if fax from consultant saying errot been made.
But based on what she said to my dh, I am not even sure thta she is prepared to do that.

she did not raise concerns in april.
she did not say that she thought that i was losing my awareness. she gave no indication at all, that she had problems/issues/concerns .
we did the whole dvla form. at the end, We talked about testing before driving. we both agreed, I do. as I should do, and have done for a long time. She said make sure my blood sugar was maybe a bit higher at the moment, For now, make sure blood sugar is 7 instead of the 6 we normally do.
Fine I said. will do.
Then we said our goodbyes. off I floated.
when I got back from holiday, sunday and saw the dvla envelope, I thought it was my licence.
WHAT A FOOL !!
This is my gripe. My dh is not happy. He fells she 'led me up the garden path'.

Branching, I have her private mobile number. I have had it for the last 8 years. And have only ever used it once before. She has mine and has phoned me 5 or 6 times in the last 8 years.
I know she may have been narked.
But so was I. It was such a shock and I thought I would ring her and she would get ontot he dvla first thing monday.

why would she say make sure blood sugar a bit higher? (sorry, not having a go - as I said, I have no clue about diabetes at all)

would there be any reason there as to why she might have been ambiguous on the dvla form?

would her even saying "agreed with oblomov that blood sugars should be higher before driving" mean (to a layperson at dvla) that eg your blood sugars were fluctuating a little at the moment?

seems really bizarre, and agree that form what you have said, what she said to you and the decision from dvla do not seem to add up.

Oh Obs, what an awful situation! If you're ever absolutely desperate to get anywhere, give me a call and I'll see if I can help. But that doesn't help with getting to work, I know. I'd be soooo screwed if I lost my licence, I can only imagine what you're going through. And so frustrating when your consultant seems reluctant to sort this out.

I hope you find a solution.

Will be back this eve but I had my license revoked due to type 1 - turned out the dvla had me down as having untreated double vision (?!) so considered me unsafe. Despite having consultants and gp write to them I still had to wait the full 12 months before reapplying to get it back. Fortunately I live in London and got a Freedom Pass in the meantime but it is/was a nightmare.

Oh and growingstrawberries running your sugars high for a few months can reinstate hypo warning signs if you've lost them - I lose mine in PG so normally have to do this post-birth.

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thanks, xalala.

so, if oblomov's consultant suggested this course of action - would that be the only reason to suggest this?

I suppose, am I saying has oblomov unwittingly agreed to do something which implies she has lost her warning signs?

but still not the right way to go about it at all. if she had concerns, she should have raised them with you at the meeting, oblomov.

Have been reading this thread with some horror as DH has Type 1 and if he lost his licence (it's due next year again) there is no way he would be able to carry on his business without driving, the thought scares the life out of me, so I really feel for you, hope you get it sorted out quickly.