Health professionals completing medical reviews
Information for health practitioners about the medical review process.
Driving is a complex task requiring good vision, judgement, perception and physical abilities.
Your role as a health professional is to assess whether the medical condition is likely to affect the person's ability to drive safely and provide advice accordingly.
To support health professionals, the national medical standards, the Assessing Fitness to Drive (AFTD) guidelines provide fitness to drive criteria and information regarding assessment and management.
Complete a medical report online
We recommend you complete the medical report online.
The fitness to drive process aims to support you in fulfilling your duty of care and public health responsibilities when it comes to managing your patient's fitness to drive.
The same responsibilities apply whether you submit the online medical report or choose to fill in a paper medical report.
Find out more about the medical report online.
Using medical report online
There are two versions available within the online form:
- Medical report for general practitioners and medical specialists, including psychiatrists.
- Eyesight report for ophthalmologists and optometrists
When completing the medical report online, we recommend using a computer, not a mobile or tablet. Make sure your web browser is up to date.
When you first use the online medical form, we ask you to create an account using your name, Ahpra number, DOB, email address and mobile number, which will be used for multi factor authentication (MFA).
After you have created your account, all subsequent log ins will require you to enter your email address, password and MFA token (sent to your mobile). You will not need to re-enter your Ahpra number or DOB for subsequent log ins, as authentication will be done in the background.
When you log in, you can save reports as drafts and request to view reports you submitted in the last two years.
If we have requested a report for your patient, you should ask them for a copy of our letter which will contain:
- the Medical Review case number
- your patient’s reference or licence number (located on top-left corner of the letter sent to your patient).
If you enter these numbers within the online medical report, your patient's personal information will be pre populated and you will not be required to manually enter information like their name, address and date of birth.
When you submit the online medical report, you’ll get a reference number. You can give the reference number and/or a PDF copy of the medical assessment report to your patient. You can also download, save or print the report.
All information submitted in a medical report remains confidential and is not shared with My Health Record.
Document your advice and actions in your patient’s file.
Medical conditions
Many medical conditions and disabilities, including those associated with general aging, may affect a person's ability to drive, so fitness to drive is an important early consideration when you are assessing and managing your patients.
Patients, including family and carers, rely on your advice regarding medical conditions and their impact on safe driving ability.
The primary aim of assessing fitness to drive is to assist your patients to continue to drive safely, independently and legally, and to identify if their safety and/or public safety may be compromised.
Examples of medical conditions that may affect safe driving include:
- alcohol and other substance misuse
- blackouts
- cardiovascular conditions
- dementia and cognitive impairment
- diabetes
- musculoskeletal conditions
- neurological conditions
- psychiatric conditions
- seizures and epilepsy
- sleep disorders
- vision and eye disorders.
It is also important to consider medications, associated treatments, and comorbidities.
For information to support assessment, view the AFTD guidelines,
Conditional licences
When a driver has a long-term or progressive health condition or disability that impacts driving ability, a conditional licence provides a mechanism for optimising driver and public safety while maintaining driver independence.
A conditional licence identifies the need for medical management, vehicle modifications and/or driver licence conditions that would enable the person to drive safely.
You can recommend your patient:
- continue driving with no changes
- surrender their driver’s licence
- get a conditional licence, for example where the patient:
- must wear glasses when driving
- should only drive during the daytime
- should only drive close to home
- occupational therapy driving assessments for vehicle modifications to optimise driver safety and independence (e.g. steering aid, left foot accelerator).
Please note: licence conditions can only be applied if the driver can be reasonably expected to remember and apply them.
If you feel that more information is required, you may recommend that your patient have an occupational therapy driving assessment.
For example, when additional information related to the individual’s functional driving performance is indicated, or when vehicle modifications may be required to optimise driver safety and independence (e.g. steering aid, left foot accelerator).
Commercial vehicle drivers
Reflecting the increased risks associated with driving commercial vehicles, more stringent health standards apply to commercial drivers such as; bus, taxi, bulk/dangerous goods and heavy vehicle drivers.
These requirements are outlined in the AFTD guidelines.
It's important for health professionals to ask about possible driving requirements for work when managing fitness to drive so that the relevant standards can be applied. A person who does not meet the commercial vehicle medical criteria may still be eligible to retain a private vehicle driver licence.
Driver licencing decisions and outcomes
As the driver licensing authority, Medical Review is solely responsible for issuing, renewing, suspending, refusing or cancelling, and reinstating a person's driver licence, including a conditional licence.
Medical Review makes a risk assessment and considers all the information received, including recommendations from health professionals, and licensing decisions are made on a case-by-case basis with reference to the AFTD guidelines
Medical Review will write to the customer to advise the outcome of their medical review.
Reporting unsafe drivers
There is no mandatory reporting requirement for health professionals in Victoria.
As a health professional, you have an important role to inform your patient about the way in which their medical condition can affect their ability to drive safely, and whether they have an obligation to self-report to Medical Review.
However, if you believe a patient lacks insight/judgement, and/or isn't heading advice to cease driving or self report, you should consider your duty of care to notify Medical Review. You, and any family member or member of the public, can anonymously report a drive.
If you believe the driver poses an immediate risk to public safety, you should report them to Victoria Police.
Fact sheets
Explaining health professional responsibilities:
- Fitness to drive information for medical practitioners
- Fitness to drive information for ophthalmologists and optometrists
- Fitness to drive information for mental health and addiction practitioners
- Fitness to drive information for occupational therapists
Information about medical conditions and driving to support your conversations with patients:
- How medical reviews work
- Medical conditions
- Medicines and road safety
- Licences for people with a disability
- Age and driving safely
Resources
- Occupational therapy and the medical review process
- Accessible parking permits
- Report a driver or medical condition
Contact us
You can contact the medical review team for help:
- phone: (03) 8391 3226
- email: [email protected]