Background: The national standards for assessing private and commercial vehicle drivers have recently been revised and combined into a single publication 'Assessing Fitness to Drive', published by Austroads. The new publication provides greater clarity of medical criteria for general practitioners and specialists and also details useful management guidelines.
Objective: This article introduces GPs to the new standards, outlines the key changes and implications for practice and highlights several medical, legal and ethical issues.
Discussion: Assessment of fitness to drive is a common issue in patient management and one that carries significant health, safety and lifestyle consequences both for the drivers themselves and other road users.