Hi Hope you all are feeling ok. I have to apply for my 3 year driving licence renewal. On the form it does not state if you hve Afib as one of your medical conditions. However at bottom of form it also tells you if you have a medical condtion can affect your driving to contact doctor.
It also says if you have a declared condtion on form to download form H1 and fill in questionaire. On that form it does says Afib and asks if I have been advised by health professional not to drive, do I suffer from any symptons which would affect safe driving, does my heart condition caused any dizziness of fainting withing the last 12 months. The answer to all these questions is no.
So here is my problem.The driving licence form D46 does not state Afib as a condition. At the same time I have had a look at form H1 on heart conditions and yes I have Afib but do not suffer from any conditions on form.
Do I just fill in driving licence form D46 and send it off oralso fill in Form H1 and send that off as well?? I am lucky in one sense I do not suffer from any obvious signs of Afib and the only way I know I am is by chexking my erratic pulse. As I type this my pulse is only 59 but erratic and rarely goes above 85bpm unless I am on treadmill. It then goes up to around 130bpm but again no indication my heart is beating faster except from my watch. Your advice would be aprreaciated and thank you for any replies. Peter
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At the risk of being accused of oversimplifying a reply .... my advice is to fully declare every AF related issue. ( I personally declare all my medical issues ). Do not hold back ! I hold a standard motor vehicle licence and a PCV licence. I have overcome the stupidity of these forms by making a declaration on a blank sheet of A4 paper, sign it and date it. Then, on the various relevant parts of these various forms just write " see attached ". When you return the form staple the declaration to it.
In that way you have made a uniform declaration for each and every form DVLA can dream up and its up to DVLA what they do .......... from your point of view you have not withheld any medical information. Be sure to disclose your GP and/or Consultants reports/details if/where appropriate.
You may wish to consider giving your motor vehicle insurers a copy of the said declaration. That way, nobody BUT NOBODY can accuse you of witholding information. As time goes on you can then update the declaration as required according to variations in your health. Simples !
Go to DVLA and look at the section covering health matters. It tends to change quite regularly but in general if you have AF and it is distracting or incapacitating you must not drive. It is not, however, a condition which doctors are legally obliged to report . As Benhall suggests it is always best to be open and declare such things as you know how difficult it can be if you don't. The system is weird of course. When I had my pacemaker I reported it and had a letter telling me thanks it has been noted and carry on, yet when I renewed my licence a couple of years later they wanted doctor's reports and all sorts of other stuff. Same with car insurance which you must advise though again merely a thankyou carry on.
The rules are you have to declare AF if it can affect your driving, I haven’t as it doesn’t but if you have dizzy spells or faints because of it you should. I believe the form you speak of is to check if you need to declare and not actually a declaration that will be recorded on your license.
l don’t have any problems renewing. As others have said honesty is the best policy. There are no restrictions if your AF is controlled and you don’t have symptoms of fainting or dizziness. I have never been asked for GP confirmation. Just answer the questions, send it off and it should go straight through.
We both filled the forms in. At that time and as Bob says they do change, the first question was "have you been advised not to drive by a healthcare professional". I also think the form after another 3 years have passed, says declare any new conditions not already declared. We rang our insurance company who didn't have box to put it in (that we had AF but NOT advised not to drive) In the end it was put as a note!
The language on the govt site is ambiguous. On one page, linked to above, it clearly mentions AF as in 'could affect you', so declare It. It doesn't say 'does affect you', when something is open to misinterpretation like this is, we have to choose the "safest" option. After years of not doing so I read this and recently declared, for the record it doesn't affect my driving, but it 'could'.From experience declaring my wife's MS I don't expect this to affect my insurance.
If afib is controlled without any incapacities they don’t want to know. Different obviously if you drive a truck or bus.
This is the direct quote from the web page.
“Group 1
car and motorcycle
Arrhythmia
✘- Must not drive if arrhythmia has caused or is likely to cause incapacity.
Driving may resume without DVLA notification only after:
■ underlying cause has been identified
■ arrhythmia is controlled for at least 4 weeks
Must notify DVLA if there are symptoms that are likely to cause incapacity and/or the arrhythmia is not controlled for at least 4 weeks, and an underlying cause has not been identified.
For the purposes of this guidance ‘incapacity’ is defined as any condition, symptom or treatment that is likely to cause an individual to be unable to safely control or stop a vehicle.”
The legal question is whether you can safely stop or control a vehicle. You can declare online if your AF does affect your driving; or not if it doesn’t.
Hi Thanks for all yr advice. As most members say best to be safe than sorry so filling in form which asks among things do you suffer from Afib but also ticked boxes that asks if it in any way affects my driving which is no. The biggest problem was when did I last see a doctor & consultant. Consultant was in dec 2023. The doctor was the problem as when I book to go to surgery all I see are nurses If the nurses went on strike at surgeries the surgeries would collapse. Phone up for appointment with doctor at say 10:30 am.Told no appointment so phone next day at 8:30 am. You do that on the dot and doctor is already booked for the day!!! Anyway thank you for all your advice and keep well🙂🙂
There will most likely be lots of advice for you posted here, but I was in exactly the same position as yourself. I have had arrhythmias continually since 2020 apart from a 2 month break after cardioversion last year and failed ablation. I contacted my local Surgery when I lived up in Moray until December 2021 as, like yourself, I was unsure. I was advised by the Doctor to declare my Arrhythmias and in consequence my licence was revoked within 3 months of declaring my problem. I am still to this day 'symptomatic' with daily episodes and I myself would not drive because they are very uncomfortable when they happen. I did, however re-apply in 2021 but was again refused so haven't bothered since because I live in Aberdeen and just take the bus. I don't think there's any simple answer as probably every episode affects everyone differently, but I like being honest and always have been. If I recall it might be as long as you are not symptomatic then you might be ok. Good luck. Take care.
The only thing I can remember having to declare to the DVLA was when I stopped needing glasses to drive because I'd had the lenses in my eyes changed so no longer need them.
Post stroke I had to wait the mandatory 4 weeks until the Dr gave me the OK to drive again. There was nothing on my online application that I can remember about AF, but I renewed my licence a couple of years ago now so it may have changed. The insurance company were not interested at all.
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