Your role as a health professional

As a health professional, you play a key role in making our roads safer by looking at your patients' overall health and how it might affect their ability to drive safely.

Your role is to assess if someone is medically fit to drive using the national Assessing Fitness to Drive  (AFTD) standards. We rely on your advice when making a decision about continued driving or what restrictions they may need on their driver licence. We also consider the person’s need to drive and road safety.

Your patients rely on you to tell them if their health condition, disability, illness, or treatment might make it unsafe for them to drive. You can help by giving clear advice about driving safely and explaining what to do to manage health problems that could make driving unsafe. Use our guide on how to assess medical fitness to drive.

Patients also need your help to understand:

• when they need to tell us about their health condition
• how they tell us
• what may happen after they tell us
• what could happen if they don't tell us.

Sometimes a patient may not follow your advice. Learn how to report your patient's medical condition to us and about your protection from liability.

Online Education Module

If you are involved in assessing or supporting decisions about fitness to drive, Austroads has developed an online education module which provides guidance on applying the national AFTD standards. This is available for use by general practitioners, medical specialists, nurses, and allied health professionals involved in driver assessment or rehabilitation. There is no prerequisite learning. The course normally costs $150, however it is currently being offered free of charge until 31 May 2026.