DVLA Medical - Timescale

[Luna2000]

H

I haven't done a DVLA test, but I have done one at work and if they don't actually see you pee in the cup, then they have no way of knowing (apart from DNA testing,) if it is your urine or someone else's.

Not sure if you have some religious issues with this, but it isn't any different from using a urinal in a public toilet, so I don't know what your particular concern is.

 

[osipeddd]

Hi, Ive got my Medical booked and one strange thing in the DVLA letter about CDT results they expect, they are saying that CDT level can raise when drinking alcohol and they expect it to be low BUT they don't provide any information about HOW low in percentage it's need to be! Nothing at all! Absolutely unacceptable and ridiculous! But it will give me an option to appeal i think and go to the court in case the will decide to revoke my license as there are no specific numbers given to target on!

 

[Luna2000]

Hi, Ive got my Medical booked and one strange thing in the DVLA letter about CDT results they expect, they are saying that CDT level can raise when drinking alcohol and they expect it to be low BUT they don't provide any information about HOW low in percentage it's need to be! Nothing at all! Absolutely unacceptable and ridiculous! But it will give me an option to appeal i think and go to the court in case the will decide to revoke my license as there are no specific numbers given to target on!

It may not mention CDT levels in the letter, but they are available online. You are expected to get below 1.6% and to be honest, the lower the better.

Also, if you answer in the questionnaire that you don't drink at all and score in the region of 1.6%, then they will infer you are lying, especially if your GP has any recorded alcohol issues.

I doubt your appeal on these grounds will be successful.

See here; https://www.drinkdriving.org/dvla-m...ing over two and,100 millilitres of blood, or

 

[Hardlessontolearn]

Is it normal to wait over 2 weeks for a decision after the dvla have scanned the DD2 form from my gp onto the system? Does anyone know if there are big delays at the moment?

 

[osipeddd]

Is it normal to wait over 2 weeks for a decision after the dvla have scanned the DD2 form from my gp onto the system? Does anyone know if there are big delays at the moment?

They've got huge backlog and if they will scan it within 2 weeks you are lucky! They doesn't know meaning of the hard work! Even monkeys at the zoo can do better job...

 

[Pipacs]

Is it normal to wait over 2 weeks for a decision after the dvla have scanned the DD2 form from my gp onto the system? Does anyone know if there are big delays at the moment?

They have scanned my paperwork 4 weeks ago and nothing happened since! All I’m waiting for is to get my medical appointment letter but it looks like will be god knows how long! I should have been back on the road by 4th of April! They are ABSOLUTELY F…. USELESS

 

[Luna2000]

They have scanned my paperwork 4 weeks ago and nothing happened since! All I’m waiting for is to get my medical appointment letter but it looks like will be god knows how long! I should have been back on the road by 4th of April! They are ABSOLUTELY F…. USELESS

It could take anything from 8 - 12 weeks to get a letter telling you to book your medical. You can fast track it a little if you tell them which Doctor's practice you want to go to. Ask people on here for the names of Doctors in your area that are on the DVLA list and call them to see what their booking backlog is like. When you find one with early appointments available, call the DVLA and tell them this is where you want to go. You will normally get a letter about a week after this asking you to book.

However, if they then decide to approach your GP for additional information, well, how long is a piece of string?

 

[Pipacs]

It could take anything from 8 - 12 weeks to get a letter telling you to book your medical. You can fast track it a little if you tell them which Doctor's practice you want to go to. Ask people on here for the names of Doctors in your area that are on the DVLA list and call them to see what their booking backlog is like. When you find one with early appointments available, call the DVLA and tell them this is where you want to go. You will normally get a letter about a week after this asking you to book.

However, if they then decide to approach your GP for additional information, well, how long is a piece of string?

Thank you so much for the advice! I’m not so sure if there is anything I could do as I called them on Friday and she said as the medical department has got my application she could do or say nothing about it any further and she hasn’t got any way she could direct me to reach out for that department? It’s absolutely hopeless

 

[Richard84]

Just thought I’d give you an update on my situation & timescales.

November 2021, banned for 24 months after blowing 98 at the roadside after putting my vehicle through a hedge. This was a first offence & reduced to 18 months upon completion of a drink driving course.

10th March 2023, D1 application form sent.
8th April, medical letter received.
19th April, medical.
3rd May, phone call from Swansea informing me I’d been granted a full 10 year licence.
9th May, licence received in the post, a full month before my ban is up.

I don’t know whether I’ve been lucky or what, but I’ve found the whole HRO application process fairly straightforward. I hope people can take heart from my experience.

I’ve found the information on this website invaluable over the past 17 months & I’d like to thank everyone who’s taken the time to contribute

 

[osipeddd]

Hi, I know dvla have their own world they live in and their own laws and the don’t give a fxxxk about our problems, but how long does average take for them to make a decision after they’ve got all medical results? They’ve got mine on 27th of April and since then nothing moving forward, just called them today and been said my case is waiting for a review,,,

Thanks

 

[Krystian Laskowski]

Just thought I’d give you an update on my situation & timescales.

November 2021, banned for 24 months after blowing 98 at the roadside after putting my vehicle through a hedge. This was a first offence & reduced to 18 months upon completion of a drink driving course.

10th March 2023, D1 application form sent.
8th April, medical letter received.
19th April, medical.
3rd May, phone call from Swansea informing me I’d been granted a full 10 year licence.
9th May, licence received in the post, a full month before my ban is up.

I don’t know whether I’ve been lucky or what, but I’ve found the whole HRO application process fairly straightforward. I hope people can take heart from my experience.

I’ve found the information on this website invaluable over the past 17 months & I’d like to thank everyone who’s taken the time to contribute

Hi there. Well done. Can I ask you what was the medical procedure you had to do? Was it easy to book it ? And did you have to send any other evidences from your gp?
Thnx
Krystian.

 

[Richard84]

Hi there. Well done. Can I ask you what was the medical procedure you had to do? Was it easy to book it ? And did you have to send any other evidences from your gp?
Thnx
Krystian.

I just phoned the number for the doctor provided on the medical letter as soon as I received it. I left a message, the doctor called me back later that day & I booked an appointment.
I can’t vouch for waiting times in different areas of the country, but I’m in Greater Manchester & was able to get an appointment 11 days later.
As for the medical itself, the doctor checked my photo ID, went through the medical questionnaire with me, then took a blood sample. All in all it took around 10 minutes. I answered the questions truthfully (but I didn’t have anything bad to hide tbh!). I did ask the doctor whether my GP would be contacted & they said they saw no need & ticked the relevant box. They didn’t contact my GP & the next communication I had was just over 2 weeks later when the DVLA rang me to say a full licence was being issued.
Maybe I was lucky they didn’t contact my GP, or maybe the majority of people who have straight forward HRO medicals don’t feel the need to write about it on here. Who knows! Good luck anyway.
Rich

 

[An example]

Hi All - HRO

Quick Stats:
- Date of Application Form in Post from DVLA: 02.3.2023
- Date I Returned Application Form in Post to DVLA: 05.3.2023
- Date of Letter from DVLA confirming Local Surgery/Doctor: 22.3.2023
- Date of medical at local Surgery/Doctor: 15.5.2023 (Local Surgery had limited times for DVLA patients, I recommend you chase for an appointment ASAP)
Progress after Medical:
- Questionnaire was completed at local doctors and Blood results were sent to the central lab and then are posted to DVLA.
- These take 10 working days from date of receipt by post to DVLA (c7 working days from date of medical) so that they are added to your file at DVLA
Daily actions I took:
- I phoned DVLA every day for an update from 22.5.2023 (Monday after initial appointment)
- No update by 31.5.2023, so I chased the surgery to email the original questionnaire to DVLA which they did on 31.5.2023 (which they confirmed was posted 20.5.2023)
- DVLA confirmed the scanned email copy of my questionnaire from Doctors was added to my file on 7.6.2023 but still no blood results.
- I continued to phone each day and was told on 9.6.2023 (8am) that my Blood results were received on 8.6.2023 and were sent to the final decision team for review on 9.6.2023.
- At approximately 2pm on 9.6.2023 I received a phone call from DVLA (they said they phoned because I had called every day) to confirm my licence was fully restored. And it doesn't matter when my next photo is needed to be updated or 10 year licence updated, there are no more medicals.

CDT: I took a private CDT 2 weeks before the DVLA medical and it was 0.4%. This was after 6 months of no alcohol.

I would like to provide comfort with this message as I was extremely nervous and my job depended on my licence being returned within the timescales of my disqualification. Feel free to ask me any questions. But from day 1 of my medical to the date of the decision, it took 18 working days including the day of the medical to get the result.

Take care
An Example.

 

[lryoung81]

Hi all

Here are my recent experiences and a broad timeline.

Jan 2011 - banned for 2 years
Mar 2016 - reapplied for licence
Jun 2016 - 10 year licence granted
Jul 2017 - banned for 3 years
Mar 2020 - reapplied for licence
Jul 2021 - 1 year licence granted
Apr 2022 - reapplied for licence
May 2023 - had medical
Jun 2023 (yesterday) - 1 year licence granted.

I hope I don't have to wait another 14 months when I reapply next year!

 

[George_le_Wolf]

Hi All - HRO

Quick Stats:
- Date of Application Form in Post from DVLA: 02.3.2023
- Date I Returned Application Form in Post to DVLA: 05.3.2023
- Date of Letter from DVLA confirming Local Surgery/Doctor: 22.3.2023
- Date of medical at local Surgery/Doctor: 15.5.2023 (Local Surgery had limited times for DVLA patients, I recommend you chase for an appointment ASAP)
Progress after Medical:
- Questionnaire was completed at local doctors and Blood results were sent to the central lab and then are posted to DVLA.
- These take 10 working days from date of receipt by post to DVLA (c7 working days from date of medical) so that they are added to your file at DVLA
Daily actions I took:
- I phoned DVLA every day for an update from 22.5.2023 (Monday after initial appointment)
- No update by 31.5.2023, so I chased the surgery to email the original questionnaire to DVLA which they did on 31.5.2023 (which they confirmed was posted 20.5.2023)
- DVLA confirmed the scanned email copy of my questionnaire from Doctors was added to my file on 7.6.2023 but still no blood results.
- I continued to phone each day and was told on 9.6.2023 (8am) that my Blood results were received on 8.6.2023 and were sent to the final decision team for review on 9.6.2023.
- At approximately 2pm on 9.6.2023 I received a phone call from DVLA (they said they phoned because I had called every day) to confirm my licence was fully restored. And it doesn't matter when my next photo is needed to be updated or 10 year licence updated, there are no more medicals.

CDT: I took a private CDT 2 weeks before the DVLA medical and it was 0.4%. This was after 6 months of no alcohol.

I would like to provide comfort with this message as I was extremely nervous and my job depended on my licence being returned within the timescales of my disqualification. Feel free to ask me any questions. But from day 1 of my medical to the date of the decision, it took 18 working days including the day of the medical to get the result.

Take care
An Example.

Hello HRO.

just to see if your situation is similar to mine. Why and which form did you need to complete for the DVLA ? curious.

 

[Luna2000]

Hi all

Here are my recent experiences and a broad timeline.

Jan 2011 - banned for 2 years
Mar 2016 - reapplied for licence
Jun 2016 - 10 year licence granted
Jul 2017 - banned for 3 years
Mar 2020 - reapplied for licence
Jul 2021 - 1 year licence granted
Apr 2022 - reapplied for licence
May 2023 - had medical
Jun 2023 (yesterday) - 1 year licence granted.

I hope I don't have to wait another 14 months when I reapply next year!

What was the reason for the extensive delay between applying and getting your medical? Did you phone them weekly? I did and even told them where I wanted to go for the medical which sped things up.

 

[PatientlyWaiting]

I've found this forum thread very helpful.

Had my medical on 17th May. I then received a letter from the DVLA dated 25th May to say that had written to my GP for further information.

I stopped drinking 2020 shortly after my conviction (previous periodic binge drinker mainly triggered by past depression). My GP notes will show i commenced anti-depressant medication for a while as well as counselling after the conviction to address the triggers for my previous drinking. It will be documented that I last drank April 2020 and when i changed GP late 2020 i confirmed i was teetotal with zero alcohol units per week on their new patient questionnaire. I stopped the anti-depressants early 2021 i think it was so i've not been back to the GP for ages. Just a little bit worried after reading this thread that i perhaps should have attended before commencing the DVLA medical process to reconfirm i don't drink! My ban ended September 2021 but only reapplied April this year.

Hoping it won't be too much longer before i hear either way. Keep checking online, it's torture! I'd be happy with a temp licence as well, just desperately need to be driving again

 

[BSC]

I'm on my first renewal of licence (12 months expired on 30th June). Medical had and doc form submitted a month ago (all no problem as stopped drinking 3 years ago) and I'm still waiting on my renewal. Phoned helpline and the medical and doc form are waiting to be reviewed - I had to wait 6 months after my ban ended to get my licence due to covid delays. Looks like the delays are still in the system so I'm without car and as a HRO can't drive in the interim until someone deigns to look at my info. Grrr...

 

[Honestman]

I'm on my first renewal of licence (12 months expired on 30th June). Medical had and doc form submitted a month ago (all no problem as stopped drinking 3 years ago) and I'm still waiting on my renewal. Phoned helpline and the medical and doc form are waiting to be reviewed - I had to wait 6 months after my ban ended to get my licence due to covid delays. Looks like the delays are still in the system so I'm without car and as a HRO can't drive in the interim until someone deigns to look at my info. Grrr...

If you have reapplied to renew your 1 year medical licence then you can drive on section 88, you are no longer a HRO, once your first 1 year medical licence was issued out you have now become a medical condition under DVLA rules ….

 

[BSC]

If you have reapplied to renew your 1 year medical licence then you can drive on section 88, you are no longer a HRO, once your first 1 year medical licence was issued out you have now become a medical condition under DVLA rules ….

Oh wow - that's amazing news. Thank you - now you mention it I think I recall this being the case but when I looked at it again I'd forgotten what I'd thought a year ago. You're a gent for taking the time to reply