Please prepare the following for your appointment to avoid delay in preparing a fitness to drive report:
Request Letter for an Endocrinology Report from VicRoads (this will be issued by VicRoad following submission of the VicRoads Medical Report by your GP) or a Commercial Passenger Vehicle Victoria (CPPV) medical report form.
Bring in all your current glucometer(s) and blood glucose monitoring records with at least 1 month blood sugar recordings (at least 3 months for commercial vehicle drivers on insulin)
Recent blood tests result within the last 3 months
Optometrist report within the last 12 months
Measures to comply with Assessing Fitness to Drive medical standards for licensing and clinical management guidelines
Avoid Hypoglycaemia
Appropriate precautionary steps to help avoid a ‘severe hypoglycaemic event’:
Not driving if your blood glucose is less than 5 mmol/L
Not driving for more than two hours without considering having a snack
Not delaying or missing a main meal
Self-monitoring blood glucose levels before driving and every two hours during a journey, as reasonably practical
Carrying adequate glucose in the vehicle for self-treatment
Treating mild hypoglycaemia if symptoms occur while driving including:
safely steering the vehicle to the side of the road
turning off the engine and removing the keys from the ignition
self-treating the low blood glucose
checking the blood glucose levels 15 minutes or more after the hypoglycaemia has been treated and ensuring it is above 5 mmol/L
not recommencing driving until feeling well and until at least 30 minutes after the blood glucose is above 5 mmol/L.
Satisfactory Control of Diabetes and Associated Complications to meet National Medical Standards
Regular monitoring with 1-3 months of blood glucose monitoring records
No recent severe hypoglycaemia episode (i.e. able to treat hypoglycaemia on his own without requiring a third party, no hypoglycaemic complicated by loss of consciousness or seizures) in the last 6 weeks
Maintenance of hypoglycaemia awareness
No/minimal sensory peripheral neuropathy and intact peripheral pulses
No known ischaemic heart disease or known stable ishaemic heart disease managed by a cardiologist
No symptoms suggestive of sleep apnoea such as daytime somnolence or known stable and treated sleep apnoea managed by a sleep physician
Reference: Austroads Assessing fitness to drive for commercial and private vehicles drivers. Medical standards licensing and clinical management guidelines. Dec 2016.