Telkom Kenya has announced that it will offer access to telemedicine for its customers at susbsidized rates. The company will offer this through its medical consultancy service, Dial Daktari.
The service provides an additional route for patients to get medical services for primary healthcare conditions, while maintaining physical distancing, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dial Daktari is a service offered to Telkom Kenya customers in partnership with Valentis Health.
Telkom customers will access this service through a toll-free number, 0800-221-011. A care manager will take you through triage and then assign you to a doctor for a consultation. If a prescription is required, one will be issued by the doctor and will be sent directly to one of various partnering pharmacies or directly to the patient. Dial Daktari will also make referrals to specialists or to laboratories for further investigations.
In emergency cases, Dial Daktari will facilitate the dispatch of an ambulance to the patient for further assessment and transfer to a hospital. A teleconsultation will cost Telkom customers KSh. 450, payable via T-Kash Paybill Number 144563.
Telkom has also donated a 50 Mbps link to the Kenyatta National Hospital’s Infectious Diseases Unit at Mbagathi. The free Internet has enabled patients in quarantine as well as the frontline nurses, medical officers and doctors at the Mbagathi facility, to keep in touch with their loved ones and the outside world. Telkom has also provisioned the National Emergency Response Committee on Coronavirus, that is based at the Ministry of Health’s offices at Afya House, with free Internet connectivity, to support their work in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya. The 200 Mbps link will also be used by the Ministry of Health’s offices at Afya House.