Dizziness, driving, and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency: audit of advice given to patients, and design of a patient information leaflet

BackgroundEvidence from the literature shows that clinicians’ knowledge of rules and legislation surrounding driving can often be poor. A closed-loop audit was conducted to gauge the level of driving advice given to patients with dizziness.MethodsThe clinical notes of 100 patients referred to the vertigo clinic at a tertiary referral centre were retrospectively searched for evidence of driving advice. Education sessions were undertaken and a patient information leaflet was developed before a second cycle of the audit.Results and conclusionThe proportion of patients having documented evidence of receiving driving advice increased from 6.3 per cent to 10.4 per cent. It is therefore clear that, despite this improvement, a significant proportion of patients’ notes did not contain documentation about driving. This is likely because of many reasons, including individual interpretation by clinicians. This paper provides a reminder of the rules, and discusses their interpretation and implementation in an increasingly medicolegal environment.