Accessing GP services for someone else, with proxy access

A GP surgery can give someone proxy access so they can help another person manage their GP health and care.

A proxy may be able to act for the person they support, by:

• ordering repeat prescriptions
• booking appointments
• contacting the surgery or speaking to surgery staff
• viewing test results or vaccinations
• accessing all or part of the GP health record, to help with health-related tasks and managing health issues

Reasons for wanting or needing help could include:

• having a physical or mental health condition
• technical barriers, for example not having a computer or a smartphone
• language barriers, for example if it’s not easy to access services in English
• practical reasons, for example working shifts or unsocial hours
• age, for example a child may need a parent to manage their GP services

If you’re aged 16 or over, you can ask for someone to be your proxy for any reason. It does not stop you having access to your GP services yourself.

If you help someone else with prescriptions, booking appointments or managing their health and care, getting proxy access could make it easier and more convenient.

You can only get online access to the GP services of a child aged under 16 if you are their parent or guardian with legal parental responsibility.

Find out more about parental responsibility on GOV.UK.

If you care for a child aged under 16, and you have legal parental responsibility for them, you can request proxy access.

To do this, please put your request in writing to the surgery addressed to Dr M Shahbaz.

Before giving access the practice needs to check

• ID for you and the child, for example passports.
• documents that help to prove you have parental responsibility, for example a birth certificate
• for safeguarding issues
• that the child consents to your access (agrees to it) or lacks capacity to consent, if they are aged 11 or over

You do not have to live at the same address as the child to have access.

You can have proxy access for more than 1 child, and a child can have more than 1 proxy acting on their behalf.

Children’s rights, capacity and consent

Children have the same legal rights over their data as adults. The GP surgery must get the child’s consent before giving access to their online GP services, if the child is able to understand and make an informed decision. This is called having capacity. 

Children aged 11 or over are usually considered to have the capacity to consent, or refuse access, unless for example they have a medical condition or learning disability that affects their understanding.  

When your online access will stop

Parent and guardian access usually ends when a child is 16. If your child wants or needs you to help manage their GP services when they are 16 or over, your GP surgery can set it up again. A new form will need to be completed.

We have an automatic cut-off age between 11 and 14, where online parent and guardian access is stopped to protect an older child’s confidentiality.

If your access stops, you can contact us to restore it.

We will need to check the child agrees to your access (consents) first.

You can tell us in advance if you think your child will not be able to understand what it means to give you access to their online GP services (called lacking capacity).

When your online access ends, you will still be able to manage your child’s health and care at the GP surgery in the same way you do now.