Last updated: 28 September 2026
Proxy access is how one person gets the authority to act for another: a parent for a child, an adult for an elderly parent, a carer for the person they care for.
It is a decision you make deliberately and can see and end, rather than something that happens as a side effect of who booked an appointment.
You need the Proxy access permission (proxy_access.view to see it, proxy_access.manage to change it). If you cannot see the page, that is the first thing to check with whoever manages roles at your practice.
Both people must already be patients at your practice. The database refuses a grant that spans two practices, so if the person you want to give access to is not registered with you, register them first.
Before you confirm, the review step states in one sentence what you are about to do - for example "KENNEDY, Sarah will be able to book appointments for KENNEDY, Freddie until 14-May-2029" - and lists the permissions rather than counting them. The confirmation afterwards repeats that sentence word for word, so you can check it landed as you meant.
The order is the same at every step: Access to (the patient) above Given to (the person receiving it). If those two ever look swapped to you, stop - it means the grant is pointing the wrong way.
Both tabs are shown even when empty, because "nobody has access" is an answer worth stating rather than a blank you have to interpret.
When you set a grant up you can give it an end date, or leave it open-ended.
If the patient is a child, the panel offers their age milestones as quick picks, and says so inline if the date you chose runs past their sixteenth birthday. It advises; it does not impose. You can deliberately choose a date beyond that, and access will continue - the record keeps a note of what was suggested and what you chose.
A grant with no end date is not revisited automatically. That is worth knowing: if you want the arrangement looked at again, give it a date.
End a grant from the Can act for tab. It takes effect on the proxy's very next action - there is no overnight job to wait for, and nothing cached that keeps them in.
The patient can also end it themselves from their portal, without asking the proxy or ringing you. Whoever ended it is named on the record.
For a walkthrough of a proxy booking online, see Booking online for someone you act for.
A patient signed in to the patient portal has a Family and carer access page listing the people who can act for them and the people they can act for. Someone holding a grant can book an appointment on behalf of the person they act for, without re-entering their details.
This half is available to every practice.
The patient portal half is on for everyone.
The practice-facing Proxy access page is on the redesigned patient record. If your practice is still on the legacy record, you will not see it yet - the rest of this article still describes what your patients can do in their portal.
There is no way for a patient or carer to request proxy access themselves. Access is granted by the practice, from the patient's record. If someone asks for it, they will need to contact you.