eldudereno

Both parents are getting on now, my mother has recently had a heart attack and my dad has big problems with his hip....do they need to see their GP or is there anywhere online where I can sort out one of those orange disabled car park passes for them?

thanks

Spoon

Your parents GP will need to be satisfied they meet the requirements, although judging by the amount of abuse of the badges you'd think they were applied for online.

They are blue now too.

_RIP_

It's worse than that Spoon, I've heard of a fair few scum scanning a 'friends' badge and using this. Lazy gits

Spoon

Lets hope all concerned get caught then hey. The genuine user of the badge will lose it and get a hefty fine in theory.

I wonder if his mates will be there to help him then once their idea of fun has been taken away and his real need is still there.

David Lock

Is the GP obliged to report if he/she thinks they are unfit to drive, big brother and all that?

Spoon

David, word on the street to Doctors says;

Notification to DVLA

It is the duty of the licence holder or licence applicant to notify DVLA of any medical condition, which may affect safe driving. On occasions however, there are circumstances in which the licence holder cannot, or will not do so.

The GMC has issued clear guidelines* applicable to such circumstances, which state:

"1. The DVLA is legally responsible for deciding if a person is medically unfit to drive. They need to know when driving licence holders have a condition, which may, now or in the future, affect their safety as a driver.

2. Therefore, where patients have such conditions, you should:

Make sure that the patients understand that the condition may impair their ability to drive. If a patient is incapable of understanding this advice, for example because of dementia, you should inform the DVLA immediately.

Explain to patients that they have a legal duty to inform the DVLA about the condition.
3. If the patients refuse to accept the diagnosis or the effect of the condition on their ability to drive, you can suggest that the patients seek a second opinion, and make appropriate arrangements for the patients to do so. You should advise patients not to drive until the second opinion has been obtained.

4 If patients continue to drive when they are not fit to do so, you should make every reasonable effort to persuade them to stop. This may include telling their next of kin.
If they agree, you may do so.

5 If you do not manage to persuade patients to stop driving, or you are given or find evidence that a patient is continuing to drive contrary to advice, you should disclose relevant medical information immediately, in confidence, to the medical adviser at DVLA.

6 Before giving information to the DVLA you should try to inform the patient of your decision to do so. Once the DVLA has been informed, you should also write to the patient, to confirm that a disclosure has been made."

(*Reproduced with kind permission of the General Medical Council)

Application of the Medical Standards

Once the licence holder has informed DVLA of their condition and provided consent, medical enquiries will be made, as required. The Secretary of State, in practice DVLA, is unable to make a licensing decision until all the available relevant medical information has been considered. It may therefore be a relatively lengthy process to obtain all necessary reports and, during this period, the licence holder normally retains legal entitlement to drive under Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act.

However, by reference to this booklet, the doctor in charge of their care should be able to advise the driver whether or not it is appropriate for them to continue to drive during this period. Patients may be reminded that if they choose to ignore medical advice to cease driving, there could be consequences with respect to their insurance cover. Doctors are advised to document formally and clearly in the notes the advice that has been given.

Where the licence has been revoked previously for medical reasons then Section 88 entitlement does not apply.

On receipt of all the required medical evidence, the medical adviser at DVLA will decide whether or not the driver or applicant can satisfy the national medical guidelines and the requirements of the law. A licence is accordingly issued or revoked/refused. The Secretary of State in the person of DVLA's medical advisers alone can make this decision.

Any doctor who is asked for an opinion about a patient's fitness to drive should explain the likely outcome by reference to this booklet but refer the licence holder/applicant to Drivers Medical Group, DVLA for a decision.

Important Note.

Throughout the publication reference is made to notification not being required where specified. For these conditions and others not mentioned in the text this is generally the case but very rarely, the conditions may be associated with continuing symptoms that may affect consciousness, attention or the physical ability to control the vehicle. In these rare instances, the driver should be advised to report the condition and symptoms of concern to DVLA.

David Lock

Thanks for that - fascinating. So I think the answer is yes, if patient is not compliant, and bugger patient confidentiality.

Spoon

It sure looks that way David. The thing is though, how important is patient confidentiality when a known disability/illness could cause a major pile-up and potentially the loss of lives if not reported.

Jaydee5

Apply to your local Social Services area office for an application form. Easy to complete, GP confirms medical condition but not gestapo stylee and should be very straight forward.

HTH

Spoon

As the medical conditions eldudereno has stated will not qualify his parents for a badge (According to Part B) he will still need the GP's input however.

Getting the form from Social Services will only mean that they then send back a medical form to be filled in by the GP.

Apparition

RIP says : " It's worse than that Spoon, I've heard of a fair few scum scanning a 'friends' badge and using this. Lazy gits "

I'm in the process of printing off some A4 posters to put on cars illegally parked in disabled bays. The poster will point outwards to the general public and will announce that " I park in disabled bays because I am selfish."

Leslie

Well done Yve, could you get sticky back paper and put it on the screen right in front of the driver as well. Might make him think twice after he has to scrape it off!

Les

David Lock

I NEVER park in disabled but I think you can if all other spaces full? So just be aware of this before you start plastering windscreens with labels

richieh

any chance you can mail me the poster so i can do a few too,
its one of my pet hates since the wife had a badge
cheers richie richie@richieszone.fsnet.co.uk

eldudereno

Thanks everyone, will see what happens.

My mother is 73 now with heart problems and my dad is 78 and is desperately in need of a hip replacement, if they cannot get a pass, who can?!?!

Spoon

David, you surprise me even saying it might be an option. Disabled spaces are there regardless of a car park being full (Which is hardly ever the case).

If anybody has experienced, witnessed a family member, or a friend, struggle to simply park when they'd love the choice of parking somewhere else and walking a bit further then I think morally an able bodied person wouldn't even begin to think that they should or could park in a disabled space at anytime.

Wheelchair users have very little, if no choice in where they can park. The space required to open the car door fully to allow entry and exit to the wheelchair dictates a wider space.

I've said it before, if there were spaces further away from the stores to allow a wheelchair user this necessity, and at the same time letting the able bodied know it's hardly a favour or special treatment that they are missing out on, then attitudes towards the parking space abuse might change. I say might but I doubt it until it's made an offence punishable by law like in the USA, but you can only hope.

It's when spaces are at the front that the able bodied think they are missing out on something better. Of course some illnesses require the spaces to be near. However some disabilities don't necessarily require the spaces to be the closest spaces to the store. A good quad or paraplegic wouldn't mind wheeling a bit further *if only* they can park.

Spinal injury hospitals are never empty, and so you would assume, indicates that a person was walking about the day before admission. The next 5 months is spent on the hospital stay on average, and then the rest of their lives are spent in a wheelchair, unable to walk, requiring these parking spaces to simply park if they are ever to get out of their house.

David Lock

I am fairly sure that I had read this somewhere. I remembered because it rather surprised me but I hope I have got this wrong as I totally agree that disabled bays should be kept for disabled.

My dear old mum could hardly walk more than 50 yds but really struggled to get a badge. However I expect we have all seen the driver of a car with a disabled badge jump out of the car and head swiftly towards the shops in an apparently healthy state. david

Spoon

Sorry David, on re-reading what I wrote I can see you might have thought I was surprised at *me* thinking it was an option. What I actually meant was that *you* surprised me thinking that it was possibly an option, as in if the carpark was full then you might just park there. I know you say you don't but I kind of read that knowing that you can might be enough to persuade you.

Supermarkets in particular have tried to get a little tougher on the abuse but I've witnessed on several occassions the abuse an old boy parking attendant gets at the local Asda. He's been threatened and ignored and doesn't really get the support from the stores management as they say profits could be dented by alienating customers.

With this management attitude things won't get better know matter how hard certain individuals try.

Local councils have also tried to look like they are doing something but when they can legally book drivers being on double yellow lines and gain revenue, they seem to not bother too hard in moving people out of disabled parking bays for 'fun'.

I wonder what Sir Frank Williams attitude to disability was before he crashed his car and ended up a quadriplegic? I know now he donates a lot of money to the Spinal Injuries Association raised from various F1 events.

I guess until somebody experiences the difficulties it's fair to say they have their own problems and largely ignore others.

As I said earlier, my point is with the space available for wheelchair users rather than the walking wounded. Both are worthy causes but most, not all walking wounded, don't necessarily require the vehicles door to open fully. Their need is probably to be nearer the store than some wheelchair users. It almost begs a two tier system, with wheelchair only spaces.

Having said that, it doesn't if the able bodied had a little respect for the struggle genuine disabled people have when simply parking up.

Then as you mention the example above, when you have blatant blue badge misuse it doesn't do much for the credibility of the genuine cause.

Imitating a disability should qualify you to be struck down with one overnight, lasting a lifetime, in my book.