Any Advice Please

[allangreen]

Having been told I have sleep apnea my specialist told me I had to inform the D.V.L.A. I informed the D.V.L.C that I had this condition and was told you can keep driving for now and we will send out some medical forms. I filled these in sent them back and heard nothing. I went through a fast track to obtain a cpap machine and after having the machine for 2 weeks I returned to the hospital for a check up. I was told everything was ok and the guy who fixed the cpap machine to the computer seemed pretty please that I had used the machine for quite long periods.and then told my next appointment was in 6 months time(sept). Two months after my hospital visit and collection of my machine (Friday 30th April) I get a letter from the D.V.L.A telling me that my liecence has been revoked and I cant drive ater the 5th May. I was under the impression that once you had a machine and your sleep apnea was controlled you were ok, apparently not?

Can anyone give me any advice on what to do now?
I travel some 80 miles a day to and from work in my job getting the train at the times that I start work is'nt really an option and at 57 years old it is a bit early for retirement.

[joeandhelen]

No need to worry Alan!

Having been told I have sleep apnea my specialist told me I had to inform the D.V.L.A. I informed the D.V.L.C that I had this condition and was told you can keep driving for now and we will send out some medical forms. I filled these in sent them back and heard nothing. I went through a fast track to obtain a cpap machine and after having the machine for 2 weeks I returned to the hospital for a check up. I was told everything was ok and the guy who fixed the cpap machine to the computer seemed pretty please that I had used the machine for quite long periods.and then told my next appointment was in 6 months time(sept). Two months after my hospital visit and collection of my machine (Friday 30th April) I get a letter from the D.V.L.A telling me that my liecence has been revoked and I cant drive ater the 5th May. I was under the impression that once you had a machine and your sleep apnea was controlled you were ok, apparently not?

Can anyone give me any advice on what to do now?
I travel some 80 miles a day to and from work in my job getting the train at the times that I start work is'nt really an option and at 57 years old it is a bit early for retirement.

Hi Alan,

You're not the soccer commentator? Don't worry but do follow it up. Do you have any record of sending your docs to the DVLA? I also had to wait and the DVLA are fine as long as they know you are using the machine and that it is working for you. Your success is confirmed by your specialist medical team by offering you their six-monthly review appointment. Have you anything in writing from the NHS and/or did the form ask for the details of your consultant. It may take time for them to contact your team!

Again six weeks is the norm which means they are happy with your results.

So just follow up but don't panic. Ring them and ask for verbal confirmation and ask for their name or reference number. If it helps I am a magistrate and the police would never take you to court as this would be thrown out. You would just supply a letter from your consultant with dates and evidence that you applied to the DVLA.

Still be careful driving as sometimes we still don't get a great night's sleep but this is no different to non-sufferers.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you go!

Good Luck!

Joe

[davejwhite]

Hi Allan

Sounds like an exact duplicate of my story. My licence was revoked on December 8th last year. I got it back only two weeks ago, despite the fact that I bought my own CPAP machine a week after (Dec 15th) and began treatment straight away. I chased DVLA again and again and was told it was 'being processed'. Ultimately, it was only when I told them that this was placing my job in jeopardy that they got things through faster.

Your re-application has to go before their medical commitee and there is a big backlog. My suggestions:
1. Make sure that your Sleep Clinic Consultant has completed and returned their forms. He/she can do this by Fax. Follow this up and get a confirmation from them (DVLA) that they have been received.
2. Keep phoning them (persevere with navigating through the several auto-menus. It does your head in, but what choice do you have?). Be polite, but firm and if you speak to someone new, every single time remind them that your job is under threat because you can't drive.
3. Do not drive until you have been told you can. A telephone confirmation will be enough - you don't have to wait for the letter, but it does need to have been 'rubber stamped' by the medical commitee.
4. There is a Complaints Commitee, and a kind of Ombudsman if you can't get satisfaction in a reasonable time. The details are on the DVLA website. Escalate it if you need to.

I hope this helps. I had no guidance, so had to slog through all this myself. At least my experience can inform others somewhat! Good luck - let us know how it goes

[Tigers Fan]

You what?????

Had no guidance? You are the lastest in a long, long line of folk getting started on CPAP. We all face the same problems. It follows then, that any and every problem you may encounter has a solution, advice, help, support somewhere in this forum.

There is seemingly endless info on CPAP and DVLA in the forum.

All you have to do to access it is use the 'Search' at the top of the page. Just asking usually gets good results, too.

TF

[jackyk]

shocked like tigers fan that you say you had no guidance.
all info i had about dvla was gleaned from this forum. its been a lifeline of information for me since being diagnosed and treated.

[mountain]

follow the doc's instruction.Everything will be fine.

[davejwhite]

OK - once you've found the site, guys!!!

I had searched for help with this. Found the Birtish Snorers Association site, but not this one. So I'm afraid your comments are as helpful as offering a bald man a comb.But thank you anyway.

[Tigers Fan]

THIS forum

Top of this page, uppermosr green band, click on 'Search'. Enter 'DVLA'. You'll get three pages of hits.

[davejwhite]

Unfortunately, none of it seems to have altered the DVLA

or their attitude to or their way of dealing with OSA, which remains over-reactive and in ignorance of professional medical advice, slow, protracted, non-responsive to communication, extremely frustrating and very disruptive to the lifestyles of those who already have much to cope with having received a diagnosis of a serious life-altering condition.

Not really good enough, is it?

[davejwhite]

I mean the DVLA, not this invaluable site

or the advice of those who put themselves out to help and be supportive.

[Tigers Fan]

Oh dear! Oh dear!

Hi Dave

You start out by saying you had no guidance and had to flog through it by yourself. You then qualify this by saying you couldn't/hadn't found this site (Google 'DVLA' and it's the third hit, just below Snorer's, which you managed to find).

So 'no guidance' translates into 'didn't look very well'.

Today you resort to venting your spleen on the DVLA, denigrating their hard work. The DVLA is manned by well meaning, ordinary working folk trying to do their jobs as best they can. Their job is to administer the set of rules handed down to them by Parliament via the Civil Service.

If you are unable to research, read and conduct yourself in a manner conforming with the rules, for whatever reason, it is hardly the fault of the DVLA that you don't get what you want.

If you find fault with the rules, the way to change them is via your MP. You'll find support for your view from at least two or three members of this forum - but you'd need to search for them.

Thank yoiu for at least making an exceptiuon for this forum and its members from your ire.

TF

[davejwhite]

Hey, just a minute

You seem to get uppity very quickly, with very little sympathy for newbies on a hard, fast learning track. How about slowing down a bit and giving people a bit of slack? And trying to see things from the point of view of the person who has had the experience? Not to mention perhaps, a modicum of sympathy.

Until I was diagnosed with OSA, I, like many others had no idea that such a condition existed, let alone an understanding of what it was. I knew no-one else with any experience of it whatsoever, and the Sleep Clinic in Northampton, which I believe is relatively new and only for consultation, gave me only superficial advice. Maybe you have lightning fast reflexes and respond to whatever life throws your way immediately and perfectly.Others of us react, take time to think things through and to feel our way towards help and guidance. To then be thrown the additional loop that your drivers licence has been revoked is yet another added burden to attempt to work out.

I have no doubt that the folk who work at DVLA are hard-working, dedicated people who do their best to try to help, but the system is flawed and badly geared to deal with situations such as this, and my experience, and that of others exposes this. Towards the end, one of the guys I spoke to told me "your application is now with the Medical Commitee, but there is a backlog pile of at least two weeks, and I can't tell you how far down your paperwork is". At least that was honest. But it took, in all, four months for me to get my licence back, and most of that time I was receiving treatment and would have been OK to drive.

So before agressively reacting to the complaint of someone who has just come through a less-than -perfect experience, pleae spare some thought as to why the complainer is complaining instead of just trying to tell him to shutup and that he should have done what he he has now done a lot earlier. That is no help whatsoever.

[Tigers Fan]

You're so vain, I bet you think this song is about you!

Hi Dave

I like the way you become calmer, more considered, every time you are challenged.

You describe the standard reaction to the OSA news - you, me, thousands of others. Hundreds in this forum and only a few, including you, see fit to attack the DVLA.

But this isn't about you, Dave, and it isn't about me - we've each been through our different learning curves already. It's about the folk that have yet to go through it, it's about what we leave behind to help and guide others along the OSA path.

Be cool!

TF

[davejwhite]

Your empathy is completely underwhelming

So with such great experience of the reactions us mere humans have to all this, perhaps one could have hoped for something other than personally directed and judgmental criticism. You seem very quick to jump to derogatory conclusions when you don't know me at all and have read a few brief comments in my posts.

My comments originally ( before you pitched in) were an attempt to offer a bit of support, help and guidance to someone who is going through almost exactly the same track as I have just come through. So how is that 'just about me'?

All right, already - enough!

What you call my 'ire', directed at DVLA also reflected the comments and views of my Consultant, Professor Stradling, at the Sleep Clinic in Oxford I have been referred to. He was insensed that DVLA had revoked my licence, stating that as I was already managing my condition and was being treated under the direction of a SLeep Clinic, this action was innappropriate and unnecessary. He said that it is his experience that they (DVLA) seem to overreact when it comes to OSA and act in a very severe manor. He was also very aware of the protracted time it takes to get this action reversed.

With more and more people getting diagnosed with this, I feel very strongly (you might have guessed) that DVLA ought to revise the way they deal with things. Had my employer been less than sympathetic and accomodating, I could very well have lost my job, and at my age, it would be quite likely that I wouldn't work again.

I understand completely the need to safeguard our roads - of course I do. We do not need drivers who fall asleep at the wheel. But the Powers That Be need to understand the chaos they can cause in peoples' lives when they remove their ability to get themselves to their job and back, or worst still, if driving is an essential part of their job. And I am sure that the system could be improved.

I will certainly be proceeding with my concerns through the legitimate channels, including my (new) MP. But that, surely, doesn't prohibit me or others from feeling upset at the way I have been treated or having an opinion on the matter which I,like you, have a right to express.

As far as we are concerned, how about a truce,and an effort to get off on a better footing? I'm game if you are!

[drewsnoresnomore]

frustrated beyond beleif with dvla


As you can tell by the header I am severely upset with DVLA.
I called as instructed by my clinic and spoke to a very uninterested and unhelpful person who took my details and my condition and put me on hold.

He came back to me and said that he would send out the forms for me to fill in. Then came the kicker

He then said my class 1 lgv and pcv licence would be suspended until my reports came back from the hospital, I asked why and was told it was standard practice.

he also said I might have to pay for a enhanced medical to get them back.

So where do i go from here

Answers on a postcard please ????????