1. New Zealand Transport Agency
5th September 2018

2. Medical Review Team
Manager Medical Reviews
Kim Hawe
Medical Review Advisers
X 5 (MRA)
Senior Customer Access Representatives x 6
Customer Access Representative X 1
Chief Medical Adviser
X 2
The section is made up of the team Leader, CMA, 5 Medical Review Advisers, and 7 administrative staff.
As the name implies, Mark is the T/L and is responsible to Alan on the day to day running of the section and provides advice to both internal and external stakeholders.
The Chief Medical Adviser (CMA) is contracted on a part time basis and works two mornings a week – Tue/Thur. While he provides advice, he does not hold delegation and is used to provide interpretation and guidance on more technical medical reports. The CMA also supports our decision in cases where our decision may be challenged in court.
3 MRA’s have a caseload to manage on a day to day basis, 1 MRA does specific projects such as developing this initiative, and the last MRA manages specific mail that comes into the section on a daily basis. Part of this mail are police reports. I will go into that area in more detail shortly.
The BSO’s maintain our bring up system – we monitor approx 6,000 lic holders on a regular basis and assess about 20,000 lic holders annually. They also do most of the section correspondence as well.

3. Role of Medical Team
In the interest of road safety for the licence holder and other road users, we ….
Assess whether a licence holders medical condition could adversely affect their ability to safely control a motor vehicle.
Gather appropriate information required to make a defendable decision.
Take appropriate action on the driver licence – either clear for continued driving, revoke the licence, or impose limitations on driving.

4. Medical Practitioners Responsibilities
Medical Practitioners cannot assume the Driver Licencing system will pick up individuals who are unfit to drive, so it is important you consider medical fitness to drive in your everyday dealings with patients, not just when someone wants a medical or eyesight certificate for driver licensing purposes. Except for older drivers, most drivers are issued licences for 10 years. For those who develop some type of medical conditions, this is ample time for their condition to deteriorate to a point where they are unfit to drive.

5. Medical Professionals Responsibilities cont’d
Section 18 of the Land Transport Act 1998
Medical practitioner must advise NZTA if a person has been advised not to drive but is likely to do so.
Section 19 of the Land Transport Act 1998
The person in charge of the hospital must notify NZTA if a licence holder becomes subject to a compulsory inpatient treatment order.

6. Procedure for reporting an individual who is unfit to drive
Inform patient they are unfit to drive and the reasons for this
If the individual accepts they are unfit to drive and advises they will not drive, then no further action is required.
If the individual does not accept the advice and is likely to continue to drive advise the agency (Section 18 of the Land Transport Act 1998) in writing or via

7. Special medical examinations
Clauses 40 & 41 Driver Licensing Rule The Agency may require persons to undergo a medical examination if it considers that there are reasonable grounds to require the person to undergo a medical examination in the interests of public safety. Must be carried out by a medical practitioner, a optometrist, or a occupational therapist, having regard to the document issued by the Agency entitled Medical Aspects of Fitness to Drive: A Guide for Medical Practitioners.

8. Assessable Driving Tasks
Right turn giving way to intersecting traffic (one lane each way)
Right turn giving way to one lane of oncoming traffic
Right turn giving way to two lanes of oncoming traffic
Left turn giving way to intersecting traffic (two lanes each way)
Lane change right 
Lane change left
Right turn at a roundabout 

9. Hazard detection & hazard response
Enable the applicant to demonstrate their higher order skills in hazard detection and response while at the same time maintaining driving performance. While driving through the assessable tasks verbally describe (in a few simple words): • the hazards they detect, and • the actions they would take in response to the hazards.

10. Driving Assessments

11. Contact Details New Zealand Transport Agency Palmerston North Office
Private Bag 11777
Palmerston North 4442
Ph ext 8089
Fax
Medical aspects of fitness to drive available on-line