For families
Supporting someone you love, from far away.
She lives in Europe. Her mother lives at home in Africa. They talk every week, but when her mother becomes unwell, she wants to understand what is happening, ask better questions and know how to help.
What Family Access means today
Distance should not stop a family understanding how to support one another.
When someone needs help
When someone you love needs help.
You send money home. You call regularly. But when someone you love becomes unwell, it can still be hard to understand what is happening, or how best to help.
A call about a health concern
News often arrives in pieces, in a short call or a message.
What did the doctor say?
Medical terms can be unfamiliar, and advice is hard to pass on second-hand.
An appointment coming up
You want to help them feel prepared, with their questions written down.
Next steps to follow
You want to help, without taking decisions away from them.
Practical support
Small ways to help, even from far away.
Most support is simple, and it goes only as far as your loved one wants.
Listen
Understand your loved one's concerns, in their own words.
Prepare
Help organise questions and information, if you are invited to.
Understand
Help them make sense of advice they choose to share.
Support
Help with agreed next steps and appropriate local follow-up.
These are everyday ways families help one another, not features of an account.
The patient's choice
Their health. Their decisions.
Family support works best when the person at its centre wants it. The patient decides whether family involvement is right for them, and how far it goes.
The patient at the centre
Adult patients control their own medical information.
The patient chooses family involvement
The patient chooses whether a trusted family member is involved.
The patient can limit or withdraw that involvement.
Support within their permission
A family member takes part only with the patient's permission.
Important to know
- Helping to pay for care does not, on its own, give access to the patient's medical information.
- Family does not make clinical decisions unless separate lawful authority applies.
- Information is shared with the patient’s permission. Any sharing also depends on the legal safeguards that apply.
- Family involvement is meant to support the patient and the clinicians involved, not to replace them.
- Share medical records or identity documents only through the secure workflow approved for the relevant service. Do not send sensitive information through a general public channel.
Family moments
Being there, in the ways that matter.
Often, support looks like a regular call, a list of questions written down together, or a calm conversation after an appointment.
Reassurance, practical help and understanding matter, whether you live in the next street or in another country.
Family Access
What Family Access means today.
Family Access is not currently available. It is not a clinical service or a substitute for patient consent.
A proposal, not yet a service
Family Access is a consent-based support model for a patient who wants a trusted family member involved in preparing for and understanding their care journey.
It is still being designed, around the patient's permission and the limits on this page.
Not available today
- Family accounts that act for a patient, and booking by family members, are not currently available.
- Joining consultations or seeing medical records through Family Access is not currently possible.
- Consultations are not currently open for public booking through this website.
- Family Access has no public price.
Tibacare's role
Tibacare provides technology, coordination, governance, and operational infrastructure.
Where clinical services are offered through Tibacare, they are provided by independently practising healthcare professionals, who remain responsible for their own assessments, advice, decisions, documentation, and professional practice.
Remote consultation is not appropriate for every medical situation. Physical assessment, investigations, treatment, and continuing hands-on care remain with appropriate local healthcare services.
Next steps
Stay close, and stay informed.
Reading about a health topic together can make the next conversation easier. Health & Insights has plain-language articles you can use today.
A good place to start
Family HealthHelping someone you love prepare for a medical appointmentGeneral information is not personal medical advice. Decisions about care belong to the patient and the clinicians treating them.