Assessing Mental Capacity For LPoA, Finances or Social Care

The following explanation is for, patients, relatives and solicitors who are wanting an assessment to determine if patient has capacity regarding their own health, finances and care.

As GPs, we have a duty of care to assess a patient’s capacity in relation to specific treatment and investigations that we propose for them. This means we can discuss capacity with regard to immediate health needs. Whether someone has capacity or not is specific to different decisions and is also time dependent. This means that any assessment by a GP is only valid at that time and with regard to a particular decision.

GPs have a contract with the NHS to provide what are called General Medical Services (GMS). Assessing capacity for social care, managing finances or overall welfare are not the responsibility of the GP in this contract. In addition to this, and because of this historically, such assessments are complex and often are outside our expertise. This type of assessment therefore is considered private work and of a type that we are unable to undertake. We are also not insured for this private work.

Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal procedure, the best person to assess a patient’s capacity to engage with that process is someone with adequate knowledge and training of the law. This could be, for example, a solicitor along with a private psychiatrist or a private GP. For social care, the social services/social worker may need to assess capacity.

We realise this policy may cause some inconvenience to our patients compared to what they hope we can help with. We trust you will understand that our priority must be to our core NHS duties as a health care provider, as per our contract.