Health screenings affect elderly drivers

MANDATORY health screening of older people before renewing their driving licence can cause higher death rates among the elderly, a doctor has claimed.

Dr Desmond O’Neill said depriving old people of what was often their only mode of transport affected both their physical and mental wellbeing.

“It can leave them cut-off, isolated, deprived of social interaction and depressed. It also represents a loss of control in their lives,” he said.