Paediatric Access

PKB handles children's records differently from adult records. This is to help the professionals looking after the safety of children and to comply with local laws enforcing that protection.

PKB has implemented a number of features specific to children's records:

  1. Freeze record - this lets organisations restrict access to a child's record while investigations are taking place.

  2. Automated carer removal - when a young person turns 13, 16 and 18 PKB reminds the Org that carers will automatically be removed unless access needs to be retained.

  3. Growth charts - a child's record automatically show these graphs for anyone under the age of 18 years of age.


Children aged between 13 and 18 can have access to their PKB record, with either their email address being added to their PKB record and/or a parent/guardian being added as a carer. This supports the current process within the Organisation when a child of 13, 16 and 18 years of age wants access to their medical record.


In accordance with existing local policies, PKB recommends that professionals manually register a child with their own email address (without requiring a carer to be added) using their clinical judgement. This is following, for example, a Gillick competence test or a Fraser guidelines assessment of the child’s understanding of benefit and risks from having access to their record.

Child 13 to 18 access workflow

Importance of children having access to their PKB record

A child having access to their medical information can help them manage their care better. Having important health information – such as immunization records, lab results and clinic letters all in one place, that they can access at any time, is key.

Parent/guardian access

A parent or guardian of a child aged 13 and 18 can request to have access to a child’s PKB record at any time. The team looking after the child will need to gain consent from the child and check their Electronic Medical Record for safeguarding flags.

Adding a parent/guardian

Once it's been confirmed that there isn't any reason not to give the parent or guardian permission, the health care professional or coordinator will ask the parent or guardian to register with their own PKB record. They can do this from the patientsknowbest.com home page following these steps.

Once the parent or guardian has registered they will be added to the child's PKB record as a carer using their email address (this is done in the Sharing section of the child's record as a professional) and 'add carer' from the patient list (as a coordinator).

Parent/guardian access workflow

Acceptable forms of ID:

Child

- Birth certificate

- Adoption certificate

- Photo ID e.g. passport,

- Driving license (provisional license)

Parent/guardian

- Passport

- Photo ID driving license


Preventing carers automatically being removed when a child turns 18

When a child turns 18, they can gain the capacity to manage their PKB record and their consent must be gained for the continuation of sharing their record with their parent or guardian. If a child is deemed not capable, a team can stop the access to the record being given to the 18 year old.

Three months before a child’s 18th birthday, PKB sends an email to the child, their carers and the coordinators of all teams looking after the child reminding everyone of the upcoming birthday and that the child's capacity needs to be assessed.

A coordinator in any of the child's team will have the ability to override this automatic removal, for example, if the child does not have the capacity or the child has explicitly consented for their carers to continue to have access.

The steps to prevent a carer from being automatically removed from a child’s record are on the PKB’s Manual pages here.

Safeguarding concern

If anyone in the team has safeguarding concerns or you find a safeguarding flag in the hospital’s Electronic Medical Record there is the ability to freeze a child’s PKB record. The steps to freeze a child’s record are here.