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 Post subject: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 7:48 pm 
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So medical due before end of August.

I don’t work much over the summer holidays, and as I was near to my doctors surgery today I went in to book an appointment for a private medical, I was told that my medical practice no longer carries out taxi driver medicals. Must be too much like hard work for them, at £100 for a half hours work.

Of course the question is now, what am I supposed to do? I thought that a medical had to be carried out by a doctor who has access to your medical records.

It’s a mad, mad,mad, mad world.

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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 8:22 pm 
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Nowadays any medical practice should have access to your medical records, if you allow them access.

I think it's something to do with this computer lark. :wink:

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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 10:36 pm 
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Our Council say it has to be a doctor with full access to your medical records. Our medical practice wont let you see anyone but your own doctor.

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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 11:26 pm 
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You can ask for a print out of your medical records which they cannot refuse,this enables you to go to any GP who does medicals,often you can find one who charges a lot less for the medical.


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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 8:53 am 
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grandad wrote:
Our Council say it has to be a doctor with full access to your medical records. Our medical practice wont let you see anyone but your own doctor.


Which is the point of my original post.

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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 1:53 pm 
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jimbo wrote:
grandad wrote:
Our Council say it has to be a doctor with full access to your medical records. Our medical practice wont let you see anyone but your own doctor.


Which is the point of my original post.



I presume you phoned, the council and checked with them ? What did they say

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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 4:11 pm 
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edders23 wrote:
jimbo wrote:
grandad wrote:
Our Council say it has to be a doctor with full access to your medical records. Our medical practice wont let you see anyone but your own doctor.


Which is the point of my original post.



I presume you phoned, the council and checked with them ? What did they say


I phoned the council. They said, “hello?”




This is not an isolated incident, or at least it won’t be an isolated incident.

The BMA policy is heading towards not doing medicals for taxi drivers. Why? Well, it’s that pesky Yes/No, fit/ unfit question. They don’t want to be the one to offer an opinion on whether or not a person is to drive a taxi. Box ticking is to be a no no.

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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 5:04 pm 
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jimbo wrote:
edders23 wrote:
jimbo wrote:
grandad wrote:
Our Council say it has to be a doctor with full access to your medical records. Our medical practice wont let you see anyone but your own doctor.


Which is the point of my original post.



I presume you phoned, the council and checked with them ? What did they say


I phoned the council. They said, “hello?”




This is not an isolated incident, or at least it won’t be an isolated incident.

The BMA policy is heading towards not doing medicals for taxi drivers. Why? Well, it’s that pesky Yes/No, fit/ unfit question. They don’t want to be the one to offer an opinion on whether or not a person is to drive a taxi. Box ticking is to be a no no.


They cannot pick and choose,if they do them for HGV,BUS DRIVERS,AIRLINE PILOTS,OFFSHORE WORKERS AND SEAMEN declaring whether they are fit or unfit to fulfil their duties,I would think they will be infringing
the rights of everyone to be treaty equally.
Stop doing them for our trade and they will have to stop doing them for everyone else leading to mass unemployment.


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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 6:31 pm 
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Is there a requirement in law for taxi drivers to have regular medicals?
I do not mean a requirement made by licensing officers within councils, I mean national law.

Therefore, if an applicant was unable to acquire a medical from any doctor, because they were unable to find a medical practitioner who was willing to fill out the council form, would a council be acting legally by refusing to license a driver who had not had a satisfactory medical?

I am told that doctors might carry out a medical, but would leave the decision as to the fitness to Drive would be made by a licensing officer. So an applicant with a complex medical history would be judged by an unqualified licensing officer. Bye-bye medicals? Entirely possible! Entirely pointless anyway.

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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 7:09 pm 
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jimbo wrote:
Is there a requirement in law for taxi drivers to have regular medicals?
I do not mean a requirement made by licensing officers within councils, I mean national law.

Therefore, if an applicant was unable to acquire a medical from any doctor, because they were unable to find a medical practitioner who was willing to fill out the council form, would a council be acting legally by refusing to license a driver who had not had a satisfactory medical?

I am told that doctors might carry out a medical, but would leave the decision as to the fitness to Drive would be made by a licensing officer. So an applicant with a complex medical history would be judged by an unqualified licensing officer. Bye-bye medicals? Entirely possible! Entirely pointless anyway.



Not Pointless,many a time something has been picked up at a medical examination.


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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 7:26 pm 
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heathcote wrote:
jimbo wrote:
Is there a requirement in law for taxi drivers to have regular medicals?
I do not mean a requirement made by licensing officers within councils, I mean national law.

Therefore, if an applicant was unable to acquire a medical from any doctor, because they were unable to find a medical practitioner who was willing to fill out the council form, would a council be acting legally by refusing to license a driver who had not had a satisfactory medical?

I am told that doctors might carry out a medical, but would leave the decision as to the fitness to Drive would be made by a licensing officer. So an applicant with a complex medical history would be judged by an unqualified licensing officer. Bye-bye medicals? Entirely possible! Entirely pointless anyway.



Not Pointless,many a time something has been picked up at a medical examination.


Pointless in as such as not picking up anything which would mean an existing driver would be denied a renewal.

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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 8:21 pm 
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jimbo wrote:
I am told that doctors might carry out a medical, but would leave the decision as to the fitness to Drive would be made by a licensing officer. So an applicant with a complex medical history would be judged by an unqualified licensing officer. Bye-bye medicals? Entirely possible! Entirely pointless anyway.


This issue was highlighted in another recent thread.

Hardly surprising that clinicians don't want the onus of deciding who's fit and proper - legally that's the ultimate responsibility of local authorities, rightly or wrongly:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34516&p=391709


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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 8:24 pm 
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Quote:
They cannot pick and choose,if they do them for HGV,BUS DRIVERS,AIRLINE PILOTS,OFFSHORE WORKERS AND SEAMEN declaring whether they are fit or unfit to fulfil their duties,I would think they will be infringing
the rights of everyone to be treaty equally.
Stop doing them for our trade and they will have to stop doing them for everyone else leading to mass unemployment.


But I doubt GPs are declaring whether or not these people are fit and proper - don't know about pilots etc, but as regards HGV and bus drivers, the ultimate decision will I suspect rest with the DVLA.


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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:10 am 
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Quote:
Hardly surprising that clinicians don't want the onus of deciding who's fit and proper - legally that's the ultimate responsibility of local authorities, rightly or wrongly:

But are they being asked that?

Our medical forms are merely tick box exercise. The doctor just ticks or puts in the details of what he has observed during the examination.

It's still down to the council to determine if the driver is fit and proper, based on what the medical form states.

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 Post subject: Re: Medical woes.
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:52 am 
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Sussex wrote:
Quote:
Hardly surprising that clinicians don't want the onus of deciding who's fit and proper - legally that's the ultimate responsibility of local authorities, rightly or wrongly:

But are they being asked that?

Our medical forms are merely tick box exercise. The doctor just ticks or puts in the details of what he has observed during the examination.

It's still down to the council to determine if the driver is fit and proper, based on what the medical form states.


Depends on each local authority's procedures (obviously).

But my point about the St Helens thread that I linked to was that there the forms seemed to be putting the onus on the clinicians to decide.

As I said, suspect the clinicians would prefer the onus to be on the LAs, and vice versa from the LAs' perspective.

Of course, legally the onus is on the LAs, but that won't necessarily stop the LAs trying to pass the buck to the GPs, as the St Helens case seemed to demonstrate.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34516&p=391709

Jimbo clearly doesn't like the idea of local authority officials and councillors having the final say, but my point to him was that that's the legal position, rightly or wrongly.


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