The Faculty of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Que, trained me in the compassionate diagnosis and treatment of disease. The Medical Council of Canada and the College of Family Physicians of Canada assessed my competence to work as a doctor. There are hundreds of other professions, trades, and occupations that require good vision, executive function, and neuromuscular coordination. Each of these occupations has its own training and mode of assessment.
I think it is reasonable for the University of British Columbia to ask my opinion about the medical students who work in my office. No one has ever asked me to assess whether a man can operate a lathe or a heavy construction crane, or whether a woman can perform as a violinist in a symphony orchestra. The Justice Department of British Columbia, which oversees the Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles (OSMV), asks me to assess whether older people can continue to drive. The inside of my office is not like a driver’s seat. I agree with Dr Laycock1 that doctors should not be asked to assess a person’s competence to drive.
There are many people in British Columbia who do not have family doctors, partly because many doctors are too busy to accept new patients. We have more than enough work as is, maintaining the relationship with our patients and keeping our patients healthy and alive. We do not need to fill out the Driver’s Medical Examination. Several times when I have indicated to a patient that he or she should have a road test to keep driving, the patient has stopped coming to see me.
I shared my concerns with classmates at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. One of them, Justice Frank Sullivan Jr, a judge in Indiana, responded in a letter in October 2010:
In my business [judging] there’s a related phenomena [sic]. Older person is ticketed for a very minor traffic offense in which no accident occurred—stop sign violation, etc. Such an infraction would ordinarily result in a punishment no more severe than a fine and a point or two on the driving record. But the adult children, etc, make it known that they would like the judge to suspend the older person’s driving privileges altogether. This would not be proportionate to the offense—which is the judge’s job in sentencing.
A doctor can inform the OSMV whether a person has a diagnosed disease. Neither a doctor nor a judge should be required to assess whether a person can drive. The OSMV should do its own assessment of vision, mental competence, and a road test on all drivers older than 74 years of age.
- Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada
Reference
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