DVLA Medical - Timescale

Convicted Driver Insurance
Timescale - got my license application pack in mid January as per others wasn't requested for a medical initially but was in the HRO. Sent it off and they cashed the cheque promptly, my ban ended 7th March. Two days before the ban expired I call them having heard nothing and I'm told that I need to pay an additional fee as I'd been told to pay the wrong one and that I'd need to have a medical. So I pay the fee over the phone and ask about the medical - to which I'm told to wait for the letter in the post and only when I have that could I arrange it. Sheesh. So weeks go by, letter finally arrives after two more calls to them to chase it. Medical arranged for a fortnight later 2nd April (earliest they had) and I'd point out that the place I had to go to was a nightmare to get too, took me 2hrs on multiple buses each way.
In this time I hadn't gone back on the road even though I could, I felt it would jinx me for some reason lol. However in late May with 6 weeks having passed since the medical I called the dvla to chase it and all the guy would tell me was that they were still dealing with cases from February in some instances. So fed up of waiting I put the car back on the road and out of the blue my license appeared in the post a couple of days later (odd!).

This is not the end of it however, I've got my license back for 1yr pending another medical after that.
I had a serious problem with drinking at the time of my ban. I got my act together but did fall off the wagon a couple of times, enough to warrant me to go to my GP for support. I was honest on the medical and hadn't drank in ages, with only 1 visit to the GP in a year (the one time in 12mths that I drank, was teetotal the rest of the time) and DVLA had contacted him. So it would seem it's not a case of whether or not you're a "moderate/heavy drinker" that they're focussing on, but whether you speak to your own GP about it.
 
Hi been reading your posts and it appears you are on a similar level to me regards drinking levels and that.

Just wondered as it may help me out a bit, if you may be as kind to let me know what height and weight you were at the time of your medical.

As I also only drink at weekends, and never more than 30 units via ales and bitters, I will have had 10 days no drinking by my medical time and if I am around your weight and height all being good I should get an idea whether I will pass or not.

Oh also could I ask did you take on board and do any of the methods such as milk thistle, water, lemon juice & water, vitamin supplements, etc etc lol.

Thanks
 
Habanero posted this almost 3 years ago, and has not posted on this forum for 18 months so I doubt you will get a reply to this. If you look at the top left of a post, it has the time and date on it to see how fresh it is.
 
Hello there,
I need to pass a medical to get my license back. I haven't sent the form requesting a new license yet, and Im off to Australia in mid august. I was wondering if anyone knew how long it would take between sending the form and getting a medical, roughly. If we're talking months I may as well save the money.
Many thanks.
 
Hello there,
I need to pass a medical to get my license back. I haven't sent the form requesting a new license yet, and Im off to Australia in mid august. I was wondering if anyone knew how long it would take between sending the form and getting a medical, roughly. If we're talking months I may as well save the money.
Many thanks.


Hi when I sent my app form, it took couple weeks to get a letter with the surgery details asking me to book the medical with them which had to be done by a date roughly 3-4 weeks time frame so not long.

Might be worth holding out til after your trip.
 
Much obliged. Shame really, it would have been useful in australia, but thats £90 more for BOOZE. Thats quite a lot of booze.


Yes but if you are taking a medical for drink driving I assume, probably not the best thing to do £90 of booze would be a very large amount and could jeopardise your chances of passing!
 
Understood. I was just joking around. I wont be able to take the medical for 3 months now anyhow. Many thanks for the info though, you saved me £90.
 
Understood. I was just joking around. I wont be able to take the medical for 3 months now anyhow. Many thanks for the info though, you saved me £90.


Ok no probs.

Also if this helps regards drinking, with 4 months to go to medical date, I stuck to drinking weekends only and would have maximum 28 units per weekend over 3 days, so 12 Friday, 12 Saturday, 4 Sunday.

I did not lie about this to the doctor, and passed.

I think may have been quite high so would advise to not go over that roughly.

Also I never touch spirits or strong wines either, and just drank ales/lagers.

On top of this although un-proven there has been some information that milk thistle helps with liver restoration so to bring percents down.

Costly but may have been worth it, try ebay and such like get much cheaper but be aware of fakes going about.

I would take milk thistle tablets 1 daily, regardless of not drinking in the week. Then when drinking on weekend days would increase to 2-3 tablets throughout the 24 hour periods.

I also took vitamin supplement tablets (Vitamin B Complex), as when we drink or take drugs are body drains of these and normal diet can not provide a rapid replacement, so supplement tablets work great for this. Again on drinking days would increase to 2-3 of these.

Some moderate exercise if you do not work manually, will also help. I do not necessarily mean running or going to the gym, but maybe some manual household jobs for yourself or others, gardening etc. Washing other people's cars/vans gave me more incentive lol.

Eating good full meals daily including a weekly range of meat, veg, fruit, bread and potatoes. Stay away from the junk foods they won't help.


With 2 weeks to go to the medical, I began drinking 3-4 pints a day of water with 2 tablespoons lemon juice in it daily. Also 4-5 mugs of coffee daily, this helps lower percentages. It is hard if you do not like coffee, but worth trying to get a few down you lol.

Lemon juice has been proved to help clean out the old system especially the liver where the tests are done. Also with the water becomes a great detoxifier.

1 week to medical stay away from meats and foods containing high iron content, such as red meats, pork (undecided), pea nuts, pasties/pies, you get the idea also be careful of some breakfast cereals as these can contain high iron also, may be worth when picking up foods at home or in shops to check the info labels for iron percents, a little won't hurt. The thing is iron could be related to drinking as per alcoholic beers, so your just covering all bases.

24 hours before the medical including sleep time, fast (do not eat anything) until after your bloods are taken, this has been shown to help decrease GGT levels which are tested for. Also to help decrease this level (the most checked one also) if you smoke, again 24 hours prior go without, get some gum, patches or e-cig which ever helps unless you are able to sustain without, and drink plenty of water and also coffee not tea, coffee has also been found as very good to reduce the GGT.

The medical and bloods won't last long probably about 10-20 mins over all, and then you can leave and treat yourself to a few hundred fags, burger and cokes lol.


Hope this helps, and good luck!
 
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Oh forgot to add, my medical was on a Wednesday morning, so the weekend prior to that I did not drink at all.

So having not drank since 2 weekends prior, had refrained from drinking 11 days!
 
Thank you sir, a very useful and conclusive post. Im only 23 and have really only been drinking heavily the past year of a 2 year ban, so I think the milk thistle tea etc might be going overboard. My plan was to stop booze completely for 3 weeks beforehand. Im told the liver will start to heal after 2 weeks sober. Hopefully this will be enough, but maybe ill get some milk thistle just to be sure.
 
Thank you sir, a very useful and conclusive post. Im only 23 and have really only been drinking heavily the past year of a 2 year ban, so I think the milk thistle tea etc might be going overboard. My plan was to stop booze completely for 3 weeks beforehand. Im told the liver will start to heal after 2 weeks sober. Hopefully this will be enough, but maybe ill get some milk thistle just to be sure.


Hi yes I took milk thistle just to be sure and heavily drank 2 years ago, but became steady to a year ago so roughly the same though I am 32, now if I can pass you should be ok as my body has took a bit of pressure compared as being older lol, just the way of life I suppose.

Warning though the doctor as part of the DVLA questions will ask if you have had alcohol problems/heavy drinking within the past year (12 months) you should say if you have ever had it recorded because they will check, and if found you lying will auto fail you lol.

You should tell the doc, when asked if you have ever suffered family/friends/work breakdowns through heavy drinking, been advised by others you are drinking too much, ever been admitted to hospital or seen a doctor regards drinking, or ever been subject to alcohol/drug re-rehabilitation.

obviously if you can answer yes to any of those medically wise, it will have been recorded for which they can see on further checks. If however you have had any of those family/friend/work breakdowns then they won't be recorded so in that case say no!

I had family breakdown and friendship issues through drinking within the past year, though never went to hospital, doctors, support or rehabilitation so none was recorded luckily - so I said no and was fine.

Anything else you need to know, please ask only too happy to try and help where possible.

Oh it's coffee that helps, not tea - sorry tea lovers lol.
 
How long do I take milk thistle capsules? My medical is on 8th June.

Had 1 pint of Carling last week and last major blow out was back in January.

And for people who is wating for the medical letter just ring Dvla and they will tell you what date is on letter when they send it out Mine took 2 weeks couldn't wait so I rang Dvla on the 4 th day and they told me what date and where my Dvla medical is /sending d1 application on recorded 1st class mail took 24 hours for Dvla receive and cost £1.80p.
 
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Just require some information, I have already been to the medical examination for the DVLA, all seemed well in the examination and I had previously detoxed and flushed out my system etc, however my blood pressure was a little high at the time of the examination so the Doctor at the medical stated that the DVLA may contact them for further information and that it may be a good idea for me to book an appointment with my GP to get another BP check up, which I did and it has come down.

True to word the DVLA sent me a letter saying that were sending request for information from my GP. I assume a look at any historical medical issues with Alcohol which I have none. The DVLA already have received blood results back so I assume all ok there as they would state otherwise. But can anyone tell me what information they actually ask for from a GP. I have goodled like hell but no joy.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
As long as you have booked or undertaken the medical, the DVLA will issue you a cover note enabling you to drive legally from the moment your ban ends, until the results of the medical are analysed. They won't to this automatically, you have to ring up and ask them to send it out.
This is completely wrong if it is to do with drinkndriving, the dvla will never issue a "cover note" in this circumstance, you have to wait until you get your full licence back
 
As long as you have booked or undertaken the medical, the DVLA will issue you a cover note enabling you to drive legally from the moment your ban ends, until the results of the medical are analysed. They won't to this automatically, you have to ring up and ask them to send it out.

StuPidIdiot - I know it hardly seems fair, especially having forked out for the rehab course to reduce the wait! :( My problem is that I don't have a car as I wrote mine off during the accident (nobody got hurt thank god) and plan to get one from a dealer on return of the licence so getting a cover note would be pointless. I'm not forking any money on a cheapo second hand car just to be told that I failed the medical either...

My letter from DVLA inviting me to re-apply for the licence was marked HR03 and not HR01 or HR02 so I must be in one of the highest offender brackets. No wonder cos I was VERY very drunk and had 261 ml of alcohol in my blood when tested (they didn't test me at the scene for some reason and the breathalizing machine at the police station wasn't working). So I suppose I'm taking it humbly and just acceptng it as additional punishment. I'm just truly relieved it's hopefully nearly over and that I hadn't hurt anybody or myself.

I would say 13 days before the end of the ban for a medical is cutting it a bit finely because it takes about a week alone for the blood results to come back to the practice and only then will they forward their report to DVLA.

Daracam - this is definitely what I was told over the phone i.e. that they now write to all high risk offenders' doctors. Shame DVLA didn't deem it suitable to inform us i.e. people concered but I guess beggars can't be choosers... The letter mentions dependency over the past year, so perhaps you'll be fine.

Why don't you give DVLA a bell? The number to call is 0300 790 6806. At least you could ask them for a cover note if that's what you want to do...? :)

I have to say it all seems to be a bit of a lottery anyway from what I can see on this forum. I can only report what is happening to me. It is not to say that somebody with similar circs would even get the same sentence. It all depends on the magistrates on the day etc. The decision makers are only human too and have different approaches...

There's is no such thing as a cover note in this circumstance
 
I was banned for 12 months from July 4th 2009. I did the DD course and got my license back on 4th April. As I blew 104 I was a HRO. I usually have a bottle of wine of a Friday and Saturday night in addition to occasional benders such as stag do's, birthdays and christmas etc. I stayed off the beer for 2 weeks before the medical which I had a few days before my license was due back. As soon as I had, had the test I rang the DVLA and they said it would take a few weeks to get the results of the test, but that they would send me a cover note which made it legal for me drive from 4th April. That arrived on the 3rd April. A few weeks later my license came through the post.

Bollocks, they will never issue a temporary licence after a drunk driving case
 
reddragon 11678
the comment about the cover note was not bo+++++s, it was written about a ban that ended in 2010. Up until the 1st June 2013 if your ban had finished and you were awaiting the result of the medical then you could be issued with a letter of authority from DVLA to allow you to drive pending the result of the medical. Anyone convicted after that date has to wait for the medical to be complete.
 
reddragon 11678
the comment about the cover note was not bo+++++s, it was written about a ban that ended in 2010. Up until the 1st June 2013 if your ban had finished and you were awaiting the result of the medical then you could be issued with a letter of authority from DVLA to allow you to drive pending the result of the medical. Anyone convicted after that date has to wait for the medical to be complete.

My medical is complete
 
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