How to see a doctor online in Egypt, in English

Standing in front of the pyramids or drifting down the Nile, you are somewhere you have wanted to be for years. Waking up with a fever in a Cairo hotel, or a stomach that has turned on you in Luxor, is the other side of the same trip, and it feels a long way from home.

The illness is rarely the hard part. The hard part is working out who to call, from where, in what language, and whether the thing you have is worth the effort of finding a clinic at all.

In Egypt the answer to that turns less on language than you would expect, and more on geography. This article covers what your options actually are, which one fits where you are standing, and when none of them is the right answer because you need an ambulance.

Why a video consultation is a sensible first move in Egypt

Because it removes the two obstacles that have nothing to do with medicine. You do not have to find a clinic, and you do not have to explain yourself twice.

It works from where you already are

This is the Egypt-specific part, and it is the reason this page exists. A great deal of Egyptian travel happens away from the cities: a resort on the Red Sea, a boat between Luxor and Aswan, a few days in an oasis. In those places the nearest clinic you would actually choose can be a long transfer away, and the calculation is different from the one you would make in a European city where a walk-in is fifteen minutes on foot.

A consultation you can take from your cabin or your room does not remove the need for a clinic when you genuinely need one. What it does is tell you whether you need one at all, which is the expensive question when the answer involves a car and half a day.

What you get, and what you do not

Pomodoc connects you by video with an English-speaking doctor licensed to treat you in Egypt, for a fixed €40 per consultation. You describe what is happening, they ask about your history, and you talk it through in plain English.

What you leave with is an assessment and a plan. It is a consultation rather than a guaranteed diagnosis or a guaranteed prescription: some things cannot be settled without an examination, and the doctor will say so when that is the case. Being told clearly that you need to be seen is a useful outcome, not a failed one.

The doctor the hotel offers to send up

In a Red Sea resort or a Cairo hotel this is usually the first thing offered, and it is convenient in a way that is hard to argue with when you feel awful. It is still worth a moment's thought, because the FCDO records a specific problem with it: some hotel doctors have overcharged for treatment and medicines.

Two things follow from that, and neither is a reason to refuse care.

• Ask what the visit will cost before it happens, and ask whether it is billed to the room.
• Buy medicines at a pharmacy rather than through the hotel where you can. Pharmacies outside hotels will often supply the same medication at lower prices.

This is also the practical case for making the first conversation a video one. Knowing whether you need a doctor in the room, a pharmacy, or nothing at all puts you in a much better position when somebody is standing at your door with a bill.

When you need to be seen in person instead

A camera cannot press on your abdomen, listen to your chest, look inside your ear with an otoscope, or close a wound. Where the answer depends on one of those, in-person care is the answer, and the honest version of a video consultation is one that tells you so quickly.

Situations that generally need hands on assessment include severe abdominal pain that needs to be felt, a chest infection where someone has to listen to your lungs, a suspected ear infection, a cut that may need closing, and any injury you cannot use normally. There is more on where that line falls in what cannot be treated with telemedicine.

One more thing worth knowing before you go anywhere remote: the UK Foreign Office says access to specialised treatment for psychiatric illness is limited and may not be available outside Egypt's major cities, and more generally the nearest clinic you would choose can be a long transfer away. On a desert or Nile leg of a trip, the useful decision is usually made earlier rather than later.

Your options in Egypt, compared

Getting ready for the appointment, online or in person

A few minutes of preparation changes what you get out of a consultation, and it is easier to do before you feel worse. Have this to hand, on paper or in your phone:

• Your main symptoms, and when each of them started.
• Any conditions you already have, and any allergies.
• The names and doses of medicines you take regularly.
• Your travel insurance policy number and its assistance line, which is a different phone number from the insurer's office.

Medicines and prescriptions in Egypt

Pharmacies are straightforward to find and, as above, generally cheaper than buying through a hotel. The part that catches travellers out is what you are allowed to have.

Prescriptions when local rules allow. Your doctor may issue one when it’s clinically appropriate and local rules permit. Whether a given pharmacy can then dispense it is a separate question and practice varies, which is covered in our guide to prescriptions abroad. Where a prescription is not the answer, a doctor can tell you what to ask a pharmacist for instead.

In short

• English is not the scarce part. Private clinics in Cairo and the resorts are used to international patients, and FCDO lists providers where some staff speak English.
• Distance is the scarce part. On a cruise, in an oasis or at a Red Sea resort, a call first tells you whether the journey is necessary.
• 123 comes first. For anything life threatening, call for an ambulance rather than booking a consultation.
• Agree the cost of a room visit. Hotel doctors have been reported to overcharge, and pharmacies outside hotels are often cheaper.
• Check your medicines. Some ordinary ones are controlled substances in Egypt, whether or not they need a prescription at home.