Home & Hotel Doctor in Cape Town

Key facts

How a visit works

You send a request on WhatsApp or through the form on our home page. A doctor who covers your area accepts it, calls you from his or her own number, tells you the fee and roughly when to expect them, and only then sets off.

1. Send a request. On WhatsApp an automated assistant asks where you are, who the visit is for and whether you need a doctor now or later. The request form asks for your name, how to reach you, the service, the patient's age group, where you are staying and when you need the doctor. It does not ask about symptoms or the reason for the visit: you explain those to the doctor.
2. The request goes to our doctors who cover your area, and the first one to accept takes it on.
3. That doctor calls you from his or her own phone. You are given the doctor's name and HPCSA registration number, so you can look the doctor up on the public register of the Health Professions Council of South Africa.
4. On that call the doctor hears what is wrong, tells you the fee and gives you an arrival time. Nothing happens until you agree.
5. The doctor comes to you, examines you and explains what he or she found. Any prescription, referral, certificate or invoice is issued by the doctor, under his or her own name and practice number.

The day after the visit, our WhatsApp assistant asks how you are, and if you feel worse, your doctor is told. The assistant is software and keeps to logistics. It will not suggest a diagnosis, name a medicine or quote a price. When a message mentions a warning sign such as chest pain or trouble breathing, its first reply gives you the emergency numbers.

Hotel doctor: a visit in your room

A doctor can see you in your hotel room, and the same goes for a guesthouse, an Airbnb or a private home. Give us the name of the property, your room or unit number and anything the doctor needs to get in.

The hotel does not have to arrange anything. Send the request yourself and let reception know a doctor is on the way, so he or she is shown straight up. Visiting from abroad? Write from your usual number: WhatsApp works without a South African SIM card. A receptionist or concierge can also send the request for you if you ask them to. Reception only needs to know that a visitor is expected. What you tell the doctor stays between the two of you, because HPCSA rules require practitioners to respect patient confidentiality and privacy.

Holiday rentals need more preparation, since nobody sits at a front desk. Tell us the complex or building name, the unit number, any gate or intercom code and where the doctor can park. If the house is in a security estate, warn the guard house or give us the name of the person who will open the gate. Small details like these decide how quickly the doctor gets from the street to your door.

Staying for weeks rather than days changes what a visit is for. The doctor can also review a condition you already live with, or write a South African prescription for medicine that is running low. Under the Medicines and Related Substances Act, prescription medicines are sold by pharmacists against a prescription from an authorised prescriber. Keep your current medicines, or their boxes, to hand so the doctor sees exactly what you take.

Doctor on call: same day, evenings and at night

We take requests day and night, and a doctor is on call at night as well as during the day. You can ask for a visit now, or book one for later today or tomorrow, in which case the doctor agrees a time with you and the arrival target does not apply.

A request for a visit now is offered at once to the doctors covering your area. In the Cape Town areas listed below, our target is for the doctor to reach you in 30 minutes to 1 hour. That is a target we set ourselves, not yet an average we have measured. The doctor who accepts gives you his or her own estimate on the phone, and if it is longer than you can wait, you can say no.

Sometimes no doctor is free. When that happens, we tell you so instead of leaving you waiting, offer to try again later, and remind you of the emergency numbers in case you get worse.

Evenings and after hours

A doctor can come to you in the evening or at night in the areas we cover: a doctor is on call at night as well as during the day. An after-hours visit is for illness that cannot wait until morning but is not life-threatening; for an emergency, call 10177 or 112.

An evening or night visit is meant for illness that cannot comfortably wait for a practice to open in the morning but is not life-threatening. A fever that will not settle, a stomach bug, an earache or a sprained ankle are the kind of thing we mean. Anything matching the warning signs further down is a job for an ambulance.

English-speaking doctor

Our doctors consult in English and Afrikaans. The WhatsApp assistant can take your request in your own language, but the consultation itself is in English or Afrikaans.

We split it this way on purpose. An address, a room number and a time have to be right whatever language you use, so the assistant works in whichever one you write in, whether that is German, Dutch, French, Russian or another language. Symptoms and medical history are another matter: we would rather say plainly that the doctor speaks English or Afrikaans than promise a language nobody on the team speaks.

If English is not easy for you, a friend or relative who speaks it can stay in the room and help. You can also ask the doctor to write down the diagnosis and treatment. That note is useful for your own doctor at home and for an insurance claim.

Areas we cover

We cover the 84 Cape Town areas below, plus Franschhoek and Paarl. If your address is not on the list, send it anyway and we will tell you whether a doctor can come.

• City Bowl and Atlantic Seaboard: City Bowl (with Gardens, Tamboerskloof, Oranjezicht, Higgovale, Vredehoek, Bo-Kaap, De Waterkant and the Foreshore), Zonnebloem (with University Estate, Walmer Estate and Devil's Peak Estate), Woodstock, Salt River, V&A Waterfront, Green Point, Mouille Point, Three Anchor Bay, Sea Point, Fresnaye, Bantry Bay, Clifton, Camps Bay, Bakoven, Llandudno, Hout Bay
• Southern Suburbs: Observatory, Mowbray, Rosebank, Pinelands, Thornton, Maitland (with Maitland Garden Village), Rondebosch, Rondebosch East, Lansdowne, Newlands, Claremont, Bishopscourt, Kenilworth, Wynberg, Constantia, Plumstead, Diep River, Southfield, Bergvliet, Meadowridge, Tokai, Westlake, Kirstenhof
• South Peninsula: Fish Hoek, Sun Valley, Sunnydale, Clovelly, Simon's Town, Glencairn, Noordhoek, Kommetjie, Ocean View, Scarborough, Misty Cliffs
• Northern suburbs and the Table Bay coast: Edgemead, Bothasig, Richwood, Plattekloof, Monte Vista, Panorama, Tijgerhof, Goodwood, Townsend Estate, Vasco Estate, Parow, Beaconvale, Glenlily, Tyger Valley, Welgemoed, Bellville, Durbanville, Table View, Parklands, Sunningdale, Bloubergstrand, Big Bay, Melkbosstrand
• Helderberg: Somerset West (with Erinvale, Helderberg Estate, Parel Vallei, Heldervue, Bridgewater and Boskloof), Strand, Gordon's Bay (with Harbour Island)
• Winelands: Franschhoek, Paarl

The arrival target of 30 minutes to 1 hour applies to the Cape Town groups only. In the Winelands towns, the doctor gives you a time on the phone and we make no promise until we have measured it.

Day or night, and in every area, the doctor calls you before setting off to confirm the exact address and how to get in safely. At night, the visit also depends on safe access to the address; the doctor tells you on that call.

Fees, payment and travel insurance

We do not publish prices. Our doctors tell you the fee by phone before they come, and you pay the doctor directly. You get an itemised invoice with the doctor's practice number for your insurer.

The ethical rules of the Health Professions Council of South Africa require a practitioner to give the patient adequate information about the diagnosis, the treatment options and alternatives, and the costs of each, so the patient can make an informed choice (rule 27A(d) of the rules as amended up to November 2023). The council's guidelines on ethical billing add that it is the practitioner's responsibility that the patient is aware of the fees before any fee-generating activity begins (section 4.1(e), April 2025). Our doctors also tell you the fee by phone before they come, so you hear it before the doctor leaves for your address, with time to decline. The fee is set by the doctor. SA Home Doctor takes no payment on this website, and how you pay is agreed with the doctor on the same call.

The invoice comes in the doctor's own name. The same HPCSA rules list what goes on a practitioner's account forms, including the registration number and the practice code number. That practice number is issued by the Board of Healthcare Funders, which says it must appear on all official documentation. South African medical schemes also need it on every account under regulation 5 of the Medical Schemes Act regulations, so residents can send the same invoice to their medical aid.

Visitors usually claim from travel insurance. Whether your policy pays for a doctor's visit, and how much, depends on your insurer and your cover, and we cannot tell you that in advance. If your policy has an assistance line, call it before the visit when you can.

When to call 10177 or 112 instead

SA Home Doctor is not an emergency service. In a medical emergency in the Western Cape, call 10177, or 112 from a mobile phone, the numbers given by the provincial government.

Call 10177 Call 112 from a mobile

Public hospitals in Cape Town, with the opening hours shown on the Western Cape Government's facility pages, followed by the public hospital listed for the Winelands:

• Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory (government, 24 h)
• New Somerset Hospital, Green Point (government, 24 h)
• Tygerberg Hospital (government, 24 h)
• Victoria Hospital, Wynberg (government, 24 h)
• In the Winelands: Stellenbosch Hospital (government)

Already waiting for one of our doctors and getting worse? Call 10177 or 112 straight away.

Frequently Asked Questions