Anyone who lives in Cairo is plagued with the dilemma of Thursday night illnesses. Doctors rarely have clinic hours on Thursdays, and it is impossible to find a private doctor on a Friday. Adults may just ride through Friday untilthey can get to a doctor Saturday, but when it comes to their children, parents want immediate care.
In any case, Tabibi 24/7 — the new “home delivery” doctor service — is working to cater to just those worries. A 24-hour pediatric service that comes to patient’s door, Tabibi 24/7 is staffed by an experienced team of physicians, nurses, and medical technicians. The Tabibi doctors will visit patients at home and the service also has clinics in Maadi and Sheikh Zayed.
Three friends with successful careers in medicine, business management consulting and operations management are the masterminds behind Tabibi, which they launched in April 2011.
“When my child was born, I found that there was a need for a pediatrician who follows up on a regular basis — not only during illnesses — to identify and address potential issues early. It happened that Khalil was my child’s doctor, who showed great interest in implementing the concept of the one-man-show doctor with the support of a strong operations team,” says Karim Ragab, Tabibi founder and managing director.
The ‘one-man-show doctor’ concept allows a doctor to take on a child from birth through their childhood years — allowing the physician to provide more personal care — while an operations team, including a call center, clinic management and accounting team, takes other administrative burdens off his or her shoulders.
Tabibi clinics offer preventive care, vaccinations, family medicine, and newborn care employing cutting-edge medical devices along with online, confidential electronic records. A fully documented medical history enables physicians to spend less effort tracking down patient records and reduces the chance of errors due to oversight.
Doctors at Tabibi 24/7 understand that newborn care is a critical phase that is usually associated with a great deal of anxiety; especially for new parents. The Tabibi doctor embarks on the birth journey with mother-to-be from the very beginning with prenatal classes, birth attendance and post-delivery consultation.
“The prenatal period is the most suitable time for an expectant mother to sit down with a physician and ask all the questions concerning maternity and postpartum issues before feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for a new baby,” says Khalil Abdel Khalek, Tabibi founder and associate professor of pediatrics at Cairo University.
“We can also prepare woman psychologically for first-time motherhood as well as give nutrition and breastfeeding advice.”
Though it puts special emphasis on children under 16, Tabibi 24/7 also offers door-to-door family medicine. While other doctors may offer to stop by when they are particularly close to a patient, doctors' offices very rarely offer the service to patients as a regular option. In case of surgical emergency or an illness outside their area of specialization, the Tabibi doctor refers patients to trusted hospitals, specialists, and medical labs and follows up with you to ensure adequate support throughout the process.
Parents can sign-up for free on www.tabibi247.comwhere they can enter their children’s full medical history and immunization records. These can also be taken during the first appointment with Tabibi. Doctors will follow up with you to update the data on regular basis. This helps physicians easily give accurate diagnoses, especially in emergency situations.
Home visits can be requested by calling the hotline 16724. Tabibi 24/7 covers neighborhoods including Maadi, Zamalek, New Cairo, Heliopolis, and Sheikh Zayed. A scheduled clinic appointment costs LE200, which includes a follow-up visit within two weeks, while a home visit ranges from LE300 to LE450 depending on the location of residential neighborhood.
This piece was originally published in Egypt Independent’s weekly print edition.
