This website is not medical advice
Everything on drop-dr.com is general information intended to help you navigate to an appropriate healthcare professional. It is not a diagnosis, not a treatment recommendation, and not a substitute for a consultation with a qualified professional who knows your circumstances.
Category descriptions and lists of "common reasons people consult" exist so you can find the right kind of professional. They are navigation aids. Reading one does not tell you what is wrong with you.
No doctor-patient relationship
Using this website does not create a doctor-patient relationship between you and DropDr, or between you and any professional listed on the platform.
A clinical relationship begins when a healthcare professional accepts and conducts a consultation with you through the DropDr application.
DropDr does not provide healthcare
Drop Doctor (Pty) Ltd operates a technology platform. It does not provide medical care, does not employ the healthcare professionals on the platform, and does not dispense medicine.
- Clinical decisions are made by the treating professional, who is independently registered and responsible for their own practice.
- Whether a consultation format, medicine, test, referral or document is appropriate is a clinical decision.
- Medicine is dispensed by a registered pharmacy that you choose.
Limitations of remote consultations
A remote consultation has real limitations compared to being examined in person. A professional cannot palpate, auscultate, take your blood pressure, look in your ears or perform a procedure over a video call.
- Some conditions cannot be safely assessed remotely.
- Some require tests or imaging before anything useful can be said.
- Some require immediate in-person attention.
The professional will tell you where a remote consultation is not sufficient. Before a consultation begins you will be asked to acknowledge these limitations — that acknowledgement is meaningful, not a formality.
Not an emergency service
DropDr cannot dispatch emergency assistance and cannot guarantee that a professional will be available at any given moment.
If you or someone else is seriously unwell or at risk, contact your local emergency provider immediately. In South Africa, 112 reaches emergency services from any mobile phone and 10177 reaches ambulance services. See emergency information.
Medicine and prescriptions
A prescription is a clinical decision. Booking and paying for a consultation does not entitle you to a prescription, and no professional on DropDr is obliged to issue one.
Never take prescription medicine that was not prescribed for you, and never adjust a prescribed dose without speaking to a professional first.
Laboratory results
A result outside a reference range does not by itself mean something is wrong, and a normal result does not always mean nothing is. Interpretation depends on your history, your symptoms and your context.
Results provided through DropDr are reviewed by the professional who requested them. Do not act on a result before you have discussed it.
Your responsibility
Clinical decisions are only as good as the information they are based on. Please:
- Give accurate and complete information about your symptoms, history and medicines.
- Tell the professional about allergies and existing conditions.
- Follow the instructions you are given, and ask if anything is unclear.
- Seek in-person or emergency care where you are advised to, or where your condition worsens.