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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


A list of telehealth operators to contact if your child gets sick

Here are some options since physically going to the doctor right now is not recommended.


As physically seeing a doctor is much more complicated than we were used due to coronavirus, many parents would rather not visit their GP or paediatrician unnecessarily. Telehealth might be a solution.

Telehealth essentially offers patients healthcare remotely where the healthcare provider and patient are not physically present with each other.

However, the Health Professions Council of South Africa does caution: “The HPCSA calls upon registered healthcare practitioners providing telemedicine to do so in line with applicable legislation and guidance provided in the HPCSA’s general ethical guidelines for good practice in telemedicine.

“Telemedicine should be utilised within the HPCSA ethical guidelines to ensure that healthcare practitioners facilitate, improve, and enhance clinical, educational, and scientific healthcare to patients.”

Also Read: How Covid-19 affects children – it’s worse than we thought

Here are some telehealth options for parents in SA:

Paed IQ  – BabyLine

South African paediatrician Dr Iqbal Karbanee started this service in 2016 through a partnership with head of the American Academy of Paediatrics Committee (AAP) on telehealth Professor Barton Schmitt, which offers a pediatric telephone triage service to South African mothers. The service offers clinical childcare assessment and telephonic guidance about daily care, nutrition, feeding, and growth and development milestones. Plus the service is free.

Call on 0860 444 128

Also Read: What could level 3 lockdown mean for you and your kids?

Hello Doctor

Hello Doctor lets you talk to a doctor on your phone. Plus they also have an app that you can download to talk to a medical doctor 24/7. All you have to do is download our APP, and you can talk to a qualified medical doctor, right from your mobile phone, and they respond within an hour.

Contact them on www.hellodoctor.co.za or call 27 (0) 87 230 0002

eHealth Group

They also offer telehealth services and give patients access to telehealth physician services with a 24/7 call centre and support doctor networks in Johannesburg, South Africa and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Phone (SA): +27 11 706 4049 or info@ehealthgroup.co.za

To read the Health Professions Council’s guidance on telehealth in SA go to:

https://www.hpcsa.co.za/Uploads/Press%20Realeses/2020/Guidelines_to_telemedicine_in_South_Africa.pdf

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