What is 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 proxy access

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.

Parent and Guardian Proxy access for children under 16

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

How to get parent and guardian proxy access

If you care for a child aged under 16, and you have legal parental responsibility for them , you can contact the surgery to fill in a form. Please make sure you have read and understood the form and complete the sections that apply, then return the form to the surgery where a member of staff will verify your Identity and then we will then process the form, please allow up to 28 working days. If there are any sections that have not been completed you will be asked to come down to the surgery to complete these sections and this will delay the application.

Before giving you access, we will need to check the following

• ID for you and the child, we need Photo and Proof of Address
• documents that help to prove you have parental responsibility, for example a birth certificate
• with anyone else that share parental responsibility with you
• for safeguarding issues
• that the child consent to your access (agrees to it) or lacks capacity to consent if they are aged 11 or over

Children’s rights, capacity and consent

Children have the same legal rights over their data as adults. Church Lane 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 usually considered to have capacity to consent, or refuse access, unless for example they have a medical condition or learning disability that affects their understand.

When your online access will stop

Parent and guardian access usually ends when a child is 16.

For patients who are under 16, access can also be provided

Once the patient reaches 11 access is restricted, and you will need to complete an up to date form for the patient to also sign.

Once the patient reaches 16 proxy access is removed automatically. If you wish to help the person still, a new form will need to be completed and both patient and proxy application will need to provide ID (Photo and Proof of Address)

Proxy access – Age Maturity Notifications

Age 11 – Age maturity is part of the proxy functionality, meaning a proxy account will be restricted when the patient they are for reaches the age of 11.

The proxy user will be notified of this by email 3 months prior to the patients birthday.

Age 16 – A proxy account will be revoked when the patient reaches the age of 16. Patients 16 and over are deemed competent to manage their own account. The proxy user will be notified of this by email 3 months prior to the patients birthday