Acting behalf of someone

Acting behalf of someone

Questions and answers about acting on behalf of an adult and child in the Kanta Services.

Another person can collect your medicines from the pharmacy on your behalf if they show your patient instructions or your Kela card at the pharmacy. When using a Kela card alone, the person must know exactly which medicines they are collecting. 

You can also grant the person picking up the medicine an electronic pharmacy authorisation in the Suomi.fi online service. When acting under an authorisation, the person must know the personal ID number of the party who granted the authorisation.

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It is not possible to collect medicines with an e-prescription on behalf of someone else at an overseas pharmacy. The reason for this is technical as it is not possible to share the required information electronically between countries.

As a guardian, you can act on behalf of your client in MyKanta if you are authorised to do so. A person under guardianship can authorise their guardian or other trusted person in the Suomi.fi online service or by submitting an application.

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It is possible to access MyKanta when acting on behalf of a person over the age of 18 or another adult with full legal capacity, such as a relative. Acting on behalf of another person requires a mandate for “Managing matters related to healthcare” granted through Suomi.fi e-authorisations, which are maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV). Many other healthcare service channels can also be accessed with the same authorisation.

Viewing social welfare client data also requires Suomi.fi authorisation. This can be found under "Managing matters related social welfare services".

Once you have been authorised by another person to act on their behalf, login to MyKanta with your own IDs. Select the 'Toisen puolesta asiointi' link and then the person for whom you want to carry out a transaction.

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In MyKanta, a parent or guardian can use the service on behalf of a child and view social welfare and healthcare data recorded about the child.

You can access the child’s data by logging in to MyKanta with your own username and password and by selecting the Child’s data link on the top of the page.

Guardians can see the information of minors of all ages in MyKanta. The visibility of the data requires that the social welfare and healthcare unit in question has made the necessary technical changes to their information system.

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Persons under the age of 18 can also use MyKanta independently. In MyKanta, a minor can

  • view their prescriptions, and social services client data and health data
  • request a repeat prescription.

In order to log in to MyKanta, a minor needs their own means of identification, such as online banking codes, a mobile ID, or electronic ID card.

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Viewing the data of a child over the age of 10 on MyKanta will be made possible in phases depending on your place of residence in Finland. It will be possible for a guardian to view the records of a child over 10 on MyKanta once the necessary changes have been made to the patient data system of the health care organisation that provided their care. These modifications are proceeding according to health care providers’ own schedules.

If you cannot see the data of your child over 10 years of age, the reason may be one of the following:

  • the social welfare and healthcare provider that treated the child has not yet applied the necessary technical updates to its patient data system and is therefore not able to show data for children aged 10 or older
  • the child has been assessed as capable of making their own decisions and the child has withheld their consent to displaying their data to a guardian.

Please note that old records will still not be visible to the guardian. Note that old records will not be visible to the guardian even after the changes. 'Old records' refers to data entered in Kanta Services after the minor reached the age of 10, but the entries were made before the patient data system was updated concerning acting on behalf of someone else.

If you cannot view the data of a child over 10 years of age on MyKanta, you can ask the health care unit treating the child about the matter.

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Giving consent in MyKanta to the sharing of prescription data with a pharmacy in another country has been discontinued as of 1 January 2023. A minor can pick up medicines from a foreign pharmacy. However, minors must visit the pharmacy in person. Dispensing the medicine from a foreign pharmacy is also possible if the guardian accompanies the child to the pharmacy. Note that acting on behalf of someone else is not yet permitted.