According to our sources, Curalie Kenya operates informally with no stand-by doctors. What they do however is that when a patient calls and pays, they call nurses from other hospitals who will call you back, some of whom are not able to professionally advise the patients
Curalie Kenya, a telephone medical consultations firm is said to be mistreating unsuspecting patients who use their APP, some have even lost money. A patient is supposed to download their App by dialling *364.
The company charges Ksh. 500 for a consultation or Ksh.200 for a primary doctor. The payment is made up front and clients are advised to wait to be called back. Initially, they claim that the consultation fee is paid once but in most cases when you call back the same doctor to report progress or otherwise for further consultation, you are asked to make further consultation fee.
Investigations by The Weekly Vision, however, reveal that upon payment of the consultation fee through MPESA, it takes hours to be called back and in some cases, it takes more than 24 hours for a call to come in.
But when you are lucky to be called back, you are asked to leave your email address for a prescription to be sent to you. It takes another 24 hours or more to get a response through email and when it is sent, the prescribed drugs are very expensive and in most cases, they refer you to buy the medication at a specific chemist or pharmacy.
In some cases, they refer you to take a laboratory test at a specified clinic. But according to our sources, Curalie Kenya operates informally and with no stand-by doctors. What they do however is that when a patient calls and pays, they call nurses from other hospitals who will call you back, some of whom are not able to professionally advise the patients.
There is a need for the Ministry of Health to investigate Curalie Kenya and see if they are working within the required medical standards.
