"Many health professionals are still not telling diabetic patients who take insulin that they should check their blood glucose before driving. Under the regulations of the United Kingdom’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, insulin dependent diabetic patients must inform the agency of their condition, must test their blood glucose before they drive, and must wait 45 minutes to drive after they have had a hypoglycaemic attack. But there are about five fatal crashes a year involving hypoglycaemia and 45 serious events a month, according to police notifications to the agency, said Brian Frier, a consultant physician at the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh, adding that this was almost certainly an underestimation. A survey from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary of 106 primary and secondary health professionals (55% doctors) found that 40% of respondents said that they didn’t know patients should test before driving and 13% thought it was safe to drive with blood glucose concentrations of less than 4 mmol/l. " (Author/publisher)
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