DVLA and driving licence renewal

After a negative experience with the NHS I went independent and purchased my own CPAP machine (a better one than the NHS).
My driving licence comes up for renewal next year. Of course they are aware of my condition, I reported it about 2 years ago, What does the DVLA (UK) do when you renew. I gather they can ask your consultant if one is complaint. But being out of the NHS I don't have a consultant, just a GP.
Has anybody gpt experience in this matter.

I suggest you PM Rick Blaine, our UK expert (lives there I believe) because most of us are in N. America and unfamiliar with your system there. Good luck!

Incartek wrote:After a negative experience with the NHS I went independent and purchased my own CPAP machine (a better one than the NHS).
My driving licence comes up for renewal next year. Of course they are aware of my condition, I reported it about 2 years ago, What does the DVLA (UK) do when you renew. I gather they can ask your consultant if one is complaint. But being out of the NHS I don't have a consultant, just a GP.
Has anybody gpt experience in this matter.

I am still under the NHS even though I've purchased my own machine and am in control of my own therapy. The NHS will still supply masks and filters etc but most importantly confirm with DVLA that you are compliant. Keep the machine they give you as a backup incase your's malfunctions.

Hello again Incartek,

You don't have to have 'a negative experience' with the NHS to be using your own machine. Most foundation trust hospitals in the UK only issue fixed-pressure machines (a) because they are working to a tight budget and (b) because the official body, NICE, says that is the recommended treatment.

If you want the added flexibility of an auto-adjusting machine, you have to buy your own.

As regards licence renewal, you don't say how old you are, and that can make a difference.

If you're between 18 and 70 (and you're not driving a truck or a bus), you'll be applying for the standard, every-ten-years renewal. If you're coming up to your 70th birthday, you'll be applying for the every-three-years renewal.

But before I go on, I just want to check - are you the same Incartek who posted here back in 2015, asking about the need to inform the DVLA? If you are, everything I said then is still true.

And as I read your new post today, one thing slightly puzzles me: you say you reported your sleep apnea to the DVLA two years ago - did they not send you two forms back then for you to fill in - one saying you waive doctor-patient confidentiality, and the other asking for the name and workplace address of your hospital consultant, or senior sleep physiologist?

If you did report your sleep apnea to the DVLA, it would be very odd for them not to write back to you with the forms. Just as it would be odd if, having sent out the forms, the DVLA did not react if and when they didn't hear back from you. Indeed, if they didn't hear back from you within a reasonable time, then your licence would have been revoked.

In any event, that was then, and this is now - and your licence is coming up for renewal.

The formal position is the same. You are obliged to inform the DVLA. Your GP is also obliged (if he or she knows you have sleep apnea) to inform the DVLA. If you have a consultant diagnose your sleep apnea, he or she would be obliged to inform the DVLA.

The business of licence renewal just reinforces those points. AND, to go along with licence renewal (for you), the DVLA needs to have fresh confirmation from your sleep doctor that you are complying with treatment, and that said treatment is working - unless the previous confirmation was less than three years ago.

So if you apply for licence renewal now - or next year - the DVLA will look in their files for the previous sleep doctor's OK. If they don't find one dated within that time period, they will want a new one.

In theory, your GP could be the confirming doctor - but these days, a confirming doctor would need to say they had 'seen your numbers'. And to do that, he or she would need the software from the maker of your machine to read the SD card. And if they don't have the software ...

Of course, your GP might be willing to go out on a limb for you ... vouch for you without the numbers. But I doubt that they will.

As Hannibal 2 says, there's something to be said for being both in the NHS system, and also outside it. If you had trouble with one sleep medicine department, I suggest you ask your GP to refer you to another one. By which I mean, unless your GP is a complete independent, he or she will be part of a 'clinical commissioning group' - and there should be more than one sleep medicine department that the CCG has access to.

This second sleep medicine department would probably want to at-home sleep test you in order to accept you as a patient. But once under their care, and once they've seen your numbers - and providing they're good - the consultant or the senior sleep physiologist could confirm directly to the DVLA that the treatment is working, and your licence renewal could proceed.

I hope this info helps you Incartek, but something (perhaps 2 posts in 7 years) tells me we may never know.
Rick has now taken the time to respond to you in much detail on both occasions, and has certainly been very helpful to other UK forum members, myself included.
It would be polite to acknowledge this if you wish to gain further support from forum members.

Rick has been extremely helpful.

I have to renew every 3 years as I am over 70. My machine is conntected using wi-fi to the Resmed site. I can get a summary print-out from the site and go through this with my GP. On that basis I am sure that he will be able to confirm compliance to the DVLA.

Yes I am the same person as in 2015.

Many thanks

Best wishes
Daniel