GP online services toolkit

Patients may find it helpful if someone else, usually a trusted family member, close friend, carer or care home, has access to their GP online account to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions, or view their GP record on their behalf.  This is proxy access.  In certain circumstances, particularly when patients lack capacity or have complex multimorbidity, it can be very helpful for a proxy to have access to their record to keep up-to-date and collaborate in their healthcare.

The proxy should have their own login credentials. This means that the proxy can be given different levels of access to the patient and their access can be switched off and the patient’s request or if the practice judges it to be in the patient’s best interest. Normally the patient must complete a form that gives consent to the proxy access.

NHS England has provided guidance for practices and care homes on how to establish proxy access for patients who are resident in care homes (see below).

• Proxy Access (68 KB DOC) – Guidance on when and how to provide proxy access for a trusted third party to a patient’s GP online services.
• Children and Young People Record Access (52 KB DOC) - Guidance on how to provide proxy access to a child or young person’s GP Online Services to people with parental responsibility and how a young person’s developing capacity and how decisions about proxy access are influenced by a young person’s developing capacity and right to confidential.
• Proxy consent form (37 KB DOC) – a template consent form to record a patient’s consent to proxy access for a trusted third person
• Proxy access to GP Online services by care home staff: Guidance for care homes and GP practices, NHS England
• GP Online Services, Dementia UK and RCGP, - information for the carer of a person with dementia.