TOUGH new guidance urging GPs to report patients who continue to drive when not medically fit has come into force.

New advice by the General Medical Council (GMC) states doctors have a duty to inform the authorities if a patient is driving against medical advice. From today doctors do not need a patient’s consent to alert the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) or Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) in Northern Ireland when a patient has continued driving.

The advice says GPs should “make every reasonable effort” to persuade a patient unfit to drive to stop, and then inform the authorities if there is a “risk of death or serious harm” to others. Doctors should try to inform a patient of their intention to disclose information before calling the DVLA or DVA.

Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said: “The worst thing people can do is ignore what they are told by their GP, because if they don’t inform the licensing body, the GP should and will.”

But AA president Edmund King said: “Rather than introducing tough medical tests across the board, we would prefer to see GPs take a more active role in telling their patients they are unfit to drive.”

The new rules comes after Glasgow bin lorry driver Harry Clarke admitted driving in the knowledge he had suffered a loss of consciousness while at the wheel of a refuse collection vehicle on December 22 2014, resulting in six deaths and leaving 15 more people injured.

Jack and Lorraine Sweeney, 68 and 69, and their granddaughter Erin McQuade, 18, Stephenie Tait, 29, Jacqueline Morton, 51, and Gillian Ewing, 52, died in the incident. A fatal accident inquiry heard Clarke had a history of health issues but had not disclosed his medical background to his employers or the DVLA.

Clarke, 60, admitted culpable and reckless driving on a separate occasion nine months after the tragedy.

Dr Barry Parker, of medical defence organisation MDDUS, said: “There are situations where a doctor may have to disclose confidential information to protect the public interest.”