Discontinuance of Insulin Injections - Reaction of DVLA

[Drummer]

I was told that management's attitude was that people had to go into the huge, badly ventilated offices with no social distancing even if people were going down with Covid all over the building, as nothing could be done to protect them - whilst they sat in their single occupant air conditioned offices being in charge.
People have died as a result.
My own licence and documentation have been with them for weeks now - but I expect it will get sorted out eventually - but I am just glad that I have had the second jab in the mean time.

 

[Ron Ashworth]

I also have a background in Industrial/Employee Relations. If Senior Management treat their staff in the same way that they treat the public, it is no surprise that there are problems. Any strike action is the responsibility of Management. They need moving on and out of the positions in which they have proved themselves to be totally inept.

 

[Inka]

It sounds like they’ve got too much work and/or not enough staff @Ron Ashworth I wouldn’t bother phoning them unless you want to raise your blood pressure. I find many gov helplines are too stressful to phone and waste a whole day trying to get through only to find out nothing or very little. There are exceptions.

Good luck in getting your DIAB3 form processed relatively quickly. At least it’s been sent in now.

 

[mikeyB]

They were making the same or similar complaints (on the medical side) twenty years ago because I spoke to the medical union rep several times, as I was the Union rep at the Agency where I worked.

I’ve had no problems getting in touch with DWP, either with delays on the phone or their customer service. Same with Civil Service pensions. On the commercial side, Lakeland, Amazon, SkyTV, Plusnet all have good service with no long waits.

It looks like the DVLA is the odd one out, just as it was 20 years ago. I suspect it’s because the Agency didn’t grow sufficiently to cope with the vast increase of drivers on the road. That was one of the complaints raised twenty years ago.

 

[Leadinglights]

They were making the same or similar complaints (on the medical side) twenty years ago because I spoke to the medical union rep several times, as I was the Union rep at the Agency where I worked.

I’ve had no problems getting in touch with DWP, either with delays on the phone or their customer service. Same with Civil Service pensions. On the commercial side, Lakeland, Amazon, SkyTV, Plusnet all have good service with no long waits.

It looks like the DVLA is the odd one out, just as it was 20 years ago. I suspect it’s because the Agency didn’t grow sufficiently to cope with the vast increase of drivers on the road. That was one of the complaints raised twenty years ago.

I had surprisingly no problem getting through to my bank fraud team when they alerted me to an suspicious transaction on my account. Not sure how they knew it was not legitimate.

 

[bruno22rf]

Don't expect much sense from DVLA, their computer system, apparently, cannot deal with being cured of Diabetes, since my transplant 16 years ago, every time my licence comes up for renewal I get the full diabetic questionnaire, every time I tell them but it never registers.

 

[trophywench]

Not wishing to deliberately ask awkward questions to be horrible to you, but from genuine interest @bruno22rf - how long is the transplant actually expected/predicted to last? eg what's to stop your immune system attacking the transplanted pancreas like it did the original one if you happen to cop for another virus (if that's what they think caused the T1) ?

 

[bruno22rf]

You are welcome to ask absolutely any question you wish, trophywench. When I had mine the best was around the 7 years mark but it is difficult to get a straight answer, a "successful" transplant is classed as one lasting a year!! I had an American surgeon, who was flown over, that used a different technique to the English and mine is currently 16 years old and going strong. As for attacking the new pancreas it's immunosuppressants that stop the organ from being rejected, however, I had a drug that wiped out my immune systems memory as well as the immune system itself, as my immune system rebuilt itself it simply accepted the new organ as always having been there thus reducing my immuno drugs and their side effects.

 

[trophywench]

Thank you!

 

[Chris Hobson]

My very first post on this forum was about my rapid progress from injecting insulin when first diagnosed, to diet and exercise only. The form that I had to fill in didn't have the appropriate tick box and joined the forum specifically to ask for advice.

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/trouble-with-the-dvla-form.59909/#post-607001

 

[Ron Ashworth]

There have been further developments. After the return of the DIAB3 from my GP to the Drivers Medical Group, they seem to be happy that I do have an acceptable level of awareness of an impending Hypo. However, my GP informed them on the DIAB3 that I had problems with my vision due to a eye infection. I informed them about this on the first DIAB1 I submitted in February. Quite rightly the Drivers Medical Group want me to attend an vision test at Specsavers in the near future. This fair enough given that they need to be satisfied that I am safe to drive with my vision is in it's current state, I am pretty confident that I will pass this test which includes visial acuity and field of vision tests.
My question is, given that I pass the vision test, how long does it take for the DVLA to issue a new licence?

Incidently, the practice nurse who helps me manage my diabetes, has agreed that I can discontinue the use of insulin on a three month trial basis.

 

[Inka]

All sounding good @Ron Ashworth I can’t answer about how long they’ll take to re-issue your licence unfortunately. I suspect if you asked them you’d be given a time range so broad it would be useless. At least you’re many steps forward now.