Improving DVLA advice provided to the patients with acute coronary syndrome upon discharge

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and coronary intervention can significantly impair patients' ability to drive and, therefore, the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) provides relevant guidance for patients and healthcare professionals on driving in order to safeguard patients, passengers and public in general. The initial pre-teaching cohort analysis revealed that 12.9% of the discharge summaries had documented driving advice and only 3.23% were in accordance with the DVLA guidance. Our primary aim was to increase the provision of appropriate driving advice to >90%. Secondary aims were to improve the quality of the written advice and to increase junior doctors' awareness and confidence in doing so. We created a template with standardised driving advice with specific guidance for group 1 and group 2 drivers, delivered formal and informal teaching, and distributed information leaflets. These measures led to an overall improvement in provision of correct advice to >90%. We demonstrated how simple measures of introducing a standardised driving advice template and conducting formal and informal teaching could significantly improve the quality of current practice pertaining to the DVLA's driving restrictions in ACS patients. The successful strategies employed by us can be utilised by other trusts across the UK to promote person-centred care and improve patient safety.