Older drivers desperate to hold onto their licences are going "doctor shopping" to find a GP who will sign off on them staying behind the wheel, a Queensland GP says.

Drivers over 75 must have a medical certificate to continue driving but GPs say they are being pressured to pass patients, who they may see for less than 15 minutes.

The revelations come just days after six-year-old Indie Armstrong was hit and killed by a car outside a supermarket on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The 86-year-old driver reversed into the girl, her eight-year-old sister Lily, mother Emily and grandmother Sandy at lunchtime on Sunday.

Lily and her grandmother remain in Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.

The death has prompted an enormous outpouring of support for the family, with the community raising more than $40,000.

Indie Armstrong was killed when she was hit by this car driven by an 86-year-old driver. ( ABC News )

Queensland doctors have the power to immediately suspend a person's licence if they feel they pose an immediate threat on the roads.

Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) Sunshine Coast spokesman Mason Stevenson said he had older patients drive in for a medical certificate, only for him to find they were legally blind.

"I've had two patients in the last year where I actually denied them the ability to drive home," he said.

"I immediately cancelled the licence — we can do that as doctors."

Once the GP makes that decision and files it with the Department of Transport, the former driver must sit a practical test with a formal instructor.

"When a doctor cancels their licence, the patients are often so advanced in terms of dementia, eyesight or frailty, they should probably have had their licence cancelled well before then," Dr Stevenson said.

But some older drivers also know the holes in the system and how to exploit them.

Older drivers 'gaming the system'

Dr Stevenson said some patients who knew they should give up their licences would do everything they could to avoid the inevitable.

"We get patients who are gaming the system," he said.

"They might choose another doctor in the practice.

"They might decide to go to a totally different practice, to a doctor who doesn't know them, to get a licence.

"They're basically doctor shopping and they shouldn't be driving."

Dr Stevenson said patients had admitted they had done this, and in some cases it forced him to sever the doctor-patient relationship.

He said patients also knew doctors had less than 15 minutes — the time of a consult — to test their eyesight, frailty and brain function.

In that time, doctors had to consider if they could be suffering dementia, any emerging issues affecting muscles or bones, and then do an eye test.

"Put this all together in 10 to 15 minutes to make a very quick assessment and we don't always get it right," Dr Stevenson said.

He said the decision to remove someone's licence was "tantamount to changing a person's life overnight".

Some older drivers also know the holes in the system and how to exploit them. ( ABC North Coast: Samantha Turnbull )

Patients 'cry, swear at me and beg'

Brisbane GP Matt Edwards described the pressure on doctors who were faced with ageing men who "cry, swear at me and beg", as well as resort to threats, guilt trips and attempts to negotiate.

"I can understand why — if they don't live inner-city, then their mobility and ability to live independently is instantly gone," Dr Edwards said.

Dr Edwards said family and friends of patients who had their licence cancelled might stop coming to see the treating doctor, and other elderly patients might come to know the doctor as someone who took drivers' licences away.

"There is a much better way to assess an elderly person's driving ability — that's a test with an instructor and occupational therapist," he said.

He said the tragic death of Indie will likely weigh heavily on any GP being asked to assess whether an elderly person ought to be on the road.

"I think it's on all GP minds. In some sad ways it actually makes the conversation easier," he said.

"If any good comes out of it, then at least it'll at least inform the conversation we have with patients."

He said much more help was needed when an elderly person was judged no longer safe to drive, so they were not placed under "virtual house arrest".

Council on the Ageing Queensland chief executive Mark Tucker-Evans said the advocacy group was aware of people "doctor shopping".

"Particularly in country areas where there's inadequate transport, [people] do shop around for a GP," he said.

"They're feeling that they've got less capability to drive so they've tried to find someone who would enable them to do that.

"They need to at that point talk to their family about how they can continue to participate in the community, without a driver's licence.

"We would not encourage people of any age to be driving if they don't have the capacity."

He said a person's health was more important than their age in determining whether they could drive safely.

"We've seen very capable drivers in their 90s, but we've seen people who probably never should have been on the road in their 20s," he said.

Should doctors be deciding who can drive?

Long-serving forensic crash officer Garry Church has criticised Queensland's practice of allowing GPs to assess elderly patients' ability to drive.

Mr Church, the founder and president of Road Trauma Services Queensland, said the system was open to abuse because patients unhappy if their doctors refused to pass their certificates could simply "doctor shop" until they found a doctor who could.

He suggested it should be up to a government body to make these assessments.

Dr Stevenson agreed a team of independent assessors would be better equipped to judge the ability of drivers behind the wheel.

RACQ spokesman Paul Turner said doctors could opt to simply not sign a medical certificate for older drivers, giving them the ability try again.

He said if a doctor did not feel comfortable supporting a person to drive, that should automatically be flagged with the Department of Transport.

Mr Turner said a report from 2012 showed younger drivers, those aged between 17 and 24, were involved in the most crashes in Queensland.

Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) found the risk of older drivers having a crash increased from the ages 75 to 79.

While older drivers were involved in few crashes — about 2 per cent — the ACRS found the crashes were more severe, occurred during the day, and happened in speed zones below 100 kilometres per hour.

Research findings from road research group CARRS-Q found older users were likely to cause a "greater number of road crashes in absolute terms" by 2056.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said people of every age need to take responsibility for their driving, and stop if they cannot drive safely.

"There are provisions there for elderly drivers to check with their doctor every year to make sure they're able to drive — we've got no plans to adjust that at this stage," he said.