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Legal Power of Attorney: Is it fit for purpose?

ended 29. June 2026

A Newspager says, despite being Legal Power of Attorney to her mother, doctors have refused her access to her medical records.

Her mother is in hospital with stage 4 breast cancer and is on high levels of medication, i.e. morphine which is affecting her mental capacity. 

But she is being told that her mother is mentally able to make decisions. But she doesn't agree.

  • At what point do LPAs kick in? 
  • Is there a grey area doctors can use to push through decisions without needing to get permission from the family?
  • How can you challenge a decision?
  • Is the LPA fit for purpose? What's the point if it doesn't kick in at this point in the example above?

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Nouran MoustafaVerified
Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth
An LPA does not let relatives override a patient. A health and welfare LPA applies only if someone lacks capacity for that decision. Capacity is decision and time specific, not judged by a diagnosis or one lucid moment.

Morphine or severe illness does not automatically remove capacity, but a family cannot be shut out with a vague “she is fine”. If the attorney disagrees, they should ask for the assessment and reasons in writing, seek a consultant or second-clinician review, and insist on a best interests meeting. The LPA should be checked, recorded and taken seriously.

Doctors do not need family permission. But the law expects them to consult the health and welfare attorney where practicable, and act on evidence in the patient’s best interests. If that process has failed, families can escalate through PALS, the trust complaints route and, in serious disputes, the Court of Protection.

The LPA is fit for purpose. The failure is treating it as paperwork, not the patient’s chosen voice.
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Editor
Steven GreenallVerified
Director at Greenall Estate Planning
The Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney is there primarily for the attorney's to agree or refuse life sustaining treatment if the donor does not have capacity based on the donor's previous wishes. (Based on this alert, there is no indication what the Mother is being asked and what the opinion of the daughter is. If the daughter wanted access to medical records, this could have been arranged previously with a letter from the Mother to her own GP)
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Yasmin Hoque0
Senior Private Wealth Solicitor at Elite Law Solicitors
It is essential to take professional legal advice prior to preparing and registering a Lasting Power of Attorney. There are finer points within the documents which determine the extent of the 'powers' available - for example it is possible for a person to confirm that the document can be available for use even when mental capacity has not been lost and this is very useful for times where there are differences of opinion or perhaps even a physical reason for relying the use of the LPAs. It is possible to populate the LPAs with additional content such as ensuring access to medical records or documents such as Wills be allowed for the attorneys and if such permissions are not correctly worded or included then difficulties to use the LPA effectively will arise, and it may be too late to rectify or re-apply correctly, due to the timescales involved. There is no point in going to the effort to prepare inadequate documents, instead expert advice should be accessed early on for later success.