Blood Test at Home or Hotel in Cape Town

At a glance

How a blood test at home works

A doctor comes to where you are staying, talks to you, decides which tests are worth doing, takes the sample and sends it to a laboratory. The results come back to you through the same doctor.

1. Message us on WhatsApp or use the request form, and note that a blood test is what you need.
2. The doctor who takes it on rings you, says who he or she is, including the HPCSA registration number, quotes the fee and fixes a time with you.
3. On arrival the doctor asks why the test is needed, examines you if that is relevant, and fills in the laboratory request form.
4. The doctor draws the blood, labels the tubes and arranges for them to reach the laboratory.
5. When the results are ready, the doctor contacts you to go through them and tells you whether anything needs to happen next.

Nothing here needs a trip across Cape Town while you feel unwell, or half a day of a short holiday spent in a waiting room. The test itself is the same one you would have at a laboratory branch; only the place where the blood is drawn changes, and the sample travels instead of you.

Which tests, and who decides

The doctor decides which tests to order. We do not sell test panels online, because the right tests depend on why you need them.

Visitors and residents in Cape Town ask for a blood test for quite different reasons. An illness that will not settle may need a result before the doctor can be sure what it is. A condition you already have may need its usual check while you are away from home. Or your own doctor abroad may have asked for something specific before you left.

In that last case, show the doctor here the request, letter or email you were given. The laboratory form is signed by the doctor who takes your blood, so he or she decides whether to order those tests, and may suggest something different after talking to you. If a test needs you to avoid food beforehand, the doctor tells you when booking.

You do not need to know the names of tests. Explaining the problem in your own words is enough.

What to tell the doctor before the visit

A few details help the doctor plan the visit and the request form. Mention them on the phone rather than at the door:

• any medicine you take, especially one that thins the blood
• whether you have ever fainted or felt faint when blood was taken
• recent results from home, even as a photo on your phone
• whether the test is for a child, since the doctor may want a parent present and will plan the visit around that

Usually none of this rules the test out, though the doctor decides on the day. Mentioning it early means the doctor arrives prepared, and you are not caught out by a question you cannot answer on the spot.

Results

Results go from the laboratory to the doctor who ordered them, and from that doctor to you. SA Home Doctor does not receive them or read them.

How long results take depends on which tests were ordered and on the laboratory, so we do not publish a turnaround time. The doctor gives you an estimate for your own tests when ordering them and agrees with you how the results will reach you.

If you are leaving Cape Town before everything is back, say so at the visit. The doctor can tell you which results are likely to arrive in time and how you will hear about the rest. Ask for a copy of the report as well, so your own doctor at home has the figures and not only a summary.

Keeping results between you and the doctor is a deliberate choice on our side. We handle the logistics of the visit. The clinical record belongs with the doctor treating you.

Booking a time

A blood test is usually planned rather than urgent. You agree a time with the doctor when he or she calls, whether that is later today or another morning.

Have the patient's full name, date of birth and contact details ready for the laboratory form, along with any letter from your own doctor. In a hotel, tell reception that a doctor is coming up. In a rental, send the unit number and any gate code, so the doctor does not lose time at the entrance.

Feeling suddenly unwell, when it is not an emergency for 10177 or 112, is a different situation from a planned test. In that case, ask for a doctor visit now through our home and hotel doctor service, and the doctor will decide whether a blood test is part of it.

Fees, laboratory charges and insurance

You hear the visit fee on the phone before the doctor sets off. Laboratory tests may be billed separately, so ask on that call how the laboratory charges.

The doctor is paid directly; this website takes no money. His or her invoice lists each item and shows the practice code number that regulation 5 under the Medical Schemes Act requires on accounts sent to a South African medical scheme. That regulation applies to every supplier of a health service, so a laboratory that bills you itself should show its own practice code number as well. For travel insurance, whether the visit and the tests are paid back depends on your policy, so keep every invoice and the laboratory report together for the claim. If you live in South Africa and belong to a medical scheme, ask the doctor on the phone which details from your membership card the laboratory form needs. The reasoning behind announcing fees by phone is set out on our home and hotel doctor page.

Emergencies

SA Home Doctor is not an emergency service. Severe pain in the chest, breathing that is a struggle, or a person who has collapsed needs 10177, or 112 dialled from a cell phone, whatever test was planned.

Call 10177 Call 112 from a mobile

Public hospitals in Cape Town on the provincial facility listings:

• New Somerset Hospital, Green Point (government, 24 h)
• Victoria Hospital, Wynberg (government, 24 h)
• Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory (government, 24 h)
• Tygerberg Hospital (government, 24 h)

Frequently Asked Questions