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A Standard Consultation with a nurse, doctor or mental health professional costs just R185 per consultation.
Kena’s Express service costs R120 per prescription. With Express, you can get or renew a prescription for a limited number of common conditions, including birth control (renewal only), hay fever, contraception and vaginal thrush.
Kena only charges per consultation, with no hidden fees.
You will only ever be charged after you have completed a consultation and the clinician has marked that consultation as complete. You will never be charged at the beginning of your consultation or before your consultation has started.
See also Will I always be charged for a consultation?
Yes. When you pay for a consultation, we will send you an invoice confirming your payment that you can submit to your South African medical aid for reimbursement.
Please note: Reimbursement is dependent on your chosen medical aid plan and scheme rules. Please contact your medical aid provider for more information.
Right now, you can pay via Debit or Credit card, Instant EFT, or via a Kena Health voucher.
Learn more about payments here.
Yes. When you create a new account on Kena, you will need to add a payment method in order to start a consultation.
If you do not have enough money in the bank account to which the card in your Kena Wallet is linked, the payment will be unsuccessful. If a payment fails, you will not be able to continue using Kena for further consultations until the outstanding invoice has been settled. In order to settle an outstanding invoice, see How do I settle an unpaid invoice?
When you add a new card to your Kena wallet to pay for consultations, we need to run a quick check to make sure that your card is active and working properly. To check this, we perform what’s called a ‘temporary authorisation hold’. What this means is that we temporarily reserve a small amount of money (in this case, R1) from the card to test it, and then release that money as soon as the test is complete. Depending on your bank, it can take up to 3 to 10 working days for the money to reflect back in your account. A temporary authorisation hold is not a charge and does not cost you anything.
There are a number of reasons why a card can be declined. If your card is declined you can try the follow steps:
To request a refund, please contact our Support Centre. You can email them at support@kena.health or call them on 087 250 2257.
Also read: Will I always be charged for a consultation?
Yes. You can add multiple cards and select which one you would like to set as your default card for making payments on Kena. You can also give each card a nickname to help you keep track of different cards. Creating a nickname for a card does not affect payment processing.
An unpaid invoice occurs when you have completed a consultation on Kena but your payment method is declined. There are two ways in which you can settle an unpaid invoice:
For more information on adding a payment method, see How do I pay on Kena?
All documents relating to a consultation, including your invoice, are stored in your consultation record. To access your consultation record, go to the ‘Consults’ section on the app by selecting the icon at the bottom of the screen. From there, select the consultation you would like to see the invoice for. Once the consultation is selected, you will be able to see all the associated documents. Simply click on the invoice to download it.
Kena is not suitable for emergency medical situations, injuries or mental health emergencies, which require immediate, in-person treatment. If you need emergency medical care, immediately call 10177 or 082 911 (Netcare Private Emergency number) or 084 124 (ER24 ambulance number) for assistance. If you or someone you know is having a mental health emergency, immediately call Lifeline South Africa on 0861 322 322 or Akeso Psychiatric Response Unit on 0861 435 787. Both are available 24 hours a day. Alternatively, click here for specific emergency medical services and mental health crisis hotlines.
Kena is an app that connects you with a nurse, doctor or mental health professional and lets you talk to them through text, voice or video. It’s designed to make getting quality medical care and mental health support simple, accessible, and affordable for everyone. With Kena, you can get a range of healthcare services, including expert medical and mental health advice, prescriptions, sick notes, referrals, and more.
A Standard Consultation with a nurse, doctor or mental health professional costs just R185 per consultation.
Kena’s Express service costs R120 per prescription. With Express, you can get or renew a prescription for a limited number of common conditions, including birth control (renewal only), hay fever, contraception and vaginal thrush.
Kena only charges per consultation, with no hidden fees.
Yes. When you pay for a consultation, we will send you an invoice confirming your payment that you can submit to your South African medical aid for reimbursement.
Please note: reimbursement is dependent on your chosen medical aid plan and scheme rules. Please contact your medical aid provider for more information.
When seeking medical advice, it’s essential that the doctor knows your medical history, so that they can give you the best treatment plan for your needs. Kena helps doctors get a comprehensive medical history by putting you through to an experienced nurse first. They will assess your condition in more detail before putting you through to a doctor.
Did you know?
Many common healthcare conditions can be taken care of by a nurse, without the need for a doctor. Talking to a doctor is always an option on Kena, but you don’t always need to.
Kena can help you with a wide range of medical needs, from day-to-day medical care, such as medical advice, referrals, prescriptions, sick notes and interpreting test results, to care for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, which require regular check-ups with a doctor. If you’re not sure what you need, or whether Kena offers it, simply start a consultation. One of our clinicians will be able to help you find out.
Kena connects you with a mental health professional who is experienced in providing mental health counselling and support for stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, grief and more. The best way to find out if Kena is the right place for you to get the help you need is to start a consultation with one of our mental health professionals.
1. Medical emergencies
Because Kena lets you consult with a nurse or doctor online, it is not suitable for emergency medical situations or injuries which require in-person treatment. If you need emergency medical treatment, immediately call the National Ambulance Response Line on 10177 or dial 112 toll free from your cellphone. Alternatively, call 082 911 (Netcare Private Emergency number) or 084 124 (ER24 ambulance number) for a private ambulance. Click here for specific emergency medical services.
2. Consultations requiring physical exams or additional tests
Some consultations require a physical exam, such as a doctor listening to your chest with a stethoscope, or a nurse drawing blood. These will still need to be done in person. If you are unsure whether you need a physical exam, a Kena nurse can tell you, and give you a referral for where you can get one near you.For some medical needs, you will need to get a test done at your local clinic first and then show the results to a Kena doctor to get your prescription. These include, for example:– Contraception prescriptions, for which a Kena doctor will need to see a recent negative pregnancy test with your name and the date on it.– The prescription or adjustment of chronic medication, for which a Kena doctor will need to see recent test results with your name and date on them.
3. The prescription of Schedule 5 and above medication
Due to regulations, you need an in-person consultation in order to get Schedule 5 and above medication, which means Kena doctors cannot prescribe it online. However, if you need Schedule 5 medication, a Kena doctor can give you a referral with the name of the medication you need, which you can take to your local doctor or clinic to get your prescription
1. Mental health emergencies
Because Kena lets you consult with a nurse or doctor online, it is not suitable for emergency medical situations or injuries which require in-person treatment. If you need emergency medical treatment, immediately call the National Ambulance Response Line on 10177 or dial 112 toll free from your cellphone. Alternatively, call 082 911 (Netcare Private Emergency number) or 084 124 (ER24 ambulance number) for a private ambulance. Click here for specific emergency medical services.
2. Consultations requiring in-person mental health assessments
Some consultations require a physical exam, such as a doctor listening to your chest with a stethoscope, or a nurse drawing blood. These will still need to be done in person. If you are unsure whether you need a physical exam, a Kena nurse can tell you, and give you a referral for where you can get one near you.For some medical needs, you will need to get a test done at your local clinic first and then show the results to a Kena doctor to get your prescription. These include, for example:
– Contraception prescriptions, for which a Kena doctor will need to see a recent negative pregnancy test with your name and the date on it.
– The prescription or adjustment of chronic medication, for which a Kena doctor will need to see recent test results with your name and date on them.
3. The prescription of Schedule 5 and above medication
Due to regulations, you need an in-person consultation in order to get Schedule 5 and above medication, which means Kena doctors cannot prescribe it online. However, if you need Schedule 5 medication, a Kena doctor can give you a referral with the name of the medication you need, which you can take to your local doctor or clinic to get your prescription.
4. The treatments of infants and babies
Due to the special nature of treating babies, Kena doctors are not currently able to treat young children under the age of 2.
Kena Health operates primarily in English, but our clinicians also speak a variety of other languages. If you would like to be helped in a different language, just ask in the chat if you can be helped in your preferred language. Your clinician will either help you themselves or transfer you to another clinician who speaks your language, if one is available.
We cannot guarantee that we will be able to help you in your preferred language as we may not have a clinician who speaks it, and not all clinicians are available at all times.
Here is a quick guide to the languages our clinicians speak at Kena Health, in addition to English:
Our nurses also speak: Setswana, XiTsonga, TshiVenda, Sepedi, IsiXhosa, and Isizulu.
Our clinical associates also speak: Afrikaans, IsiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, and IsiXhosa.
Our mental health professionals also speak: Sepedi, Setswana, Sesotho, Afrikaans, TshiVenda, XiTsonga, IsiXhosa, and IsiZulu.
Our doctors also speak: IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Setswana, Sesotho, Basic XiTsonga/TshiVenda, and Intermediate French.
Linda, our digital assistant, is an automated conversational agent we designed to help gather routine patient history for our clinicians and to help us know if you qualify for a prescription when you use Kena’s Express service to get a prescription for common conditions.
For our nurses, doctors and mental health professionals, Linda saves them time, helping them spend more time with you. With Express, she helps us know whether you qualify for a prescription or whether you need to speak to a clinician first.
Answering her questions accurately and honestly is important because it helps us give you an accurate diagnosis, prescription or treatment plan.
We know data can be expensive and we will always try and help you in ways that use as little data as possible, such as using text chat and sending photos. When consulting with a nurse, doctor or mental health professional on Kena, you can request to talk via chat or voice as much as possible and only use video if it is necessary to accurately diagnose and treat you. If data is a concern, we recommend starting a consultation when your phone has a Wi-Fi signal.
Our nurses, doctors and mental health professionals are available at the following hours:
Monday - Friday: 8am – 8pm
Saturdays: 8am – 5pm
Sundays and public holidays: 8am – 2pm
If you start a consultation outside of these hours, Kena will send you a notification as soon as one of our clinicians becomes available. We are working to extend our operating hours as our services grow.
Yes! You can get a Kena consultation with a nurse, doctor or mental health professional on all major public holidays between 8am and 2pm, except for Christmas Day and New Years Day.
Step 1: Select what you would like to talk about on the Kena app.
Step 2: Linda, our digital assistant, will ask you some routine questions about your health.
Step 3: You will be put in a queue to speak to a nurse, who will talk with you one-on-one. You can use text or a voice or video call. If yours is one of the many common healthcare needs that can be taken care of by a nurse, they will provide the assistance you need, including issuing a sick note, referral or giving medical advice. All documents will be available on your phone.
Step 4: If your concern requires a doctor’s attention, the nurse will put you in a queue to see a doctor, who you can also talk to via text, voice or video. All consultations are strictly private and confidential.
Step 5: The doctor will give you your diagnosis, treatment plan, prescription, sick note, referral or medical advice. All documents will be available on your phone.
Step 1: Scroll down to the mental health section on the Kena app and select what you would like to talk about.
Step 2: Linda, our digital assistant, will ask you some routine questions about your health.
Step 3: You will be put in a queue to talk to a mental health professional who will talk with you one-on-one. You can talk using text, voice or video. Voice or video calls won’t be started without your permission.
Step 4: The mental health professional can then set up a treatment plan with you, including future follow ups, or refer you to a doctor, who you can often also see on Kena.
Yes. Kena Health has a strict privacy policy that ensures all your medical details are kept confidential, just as they would be with your local doctor or GP. Your medical details are only shared with your consulting clinician – with your permission – or when required by law.
They are encrypted and stored securely and never shared with any third party.
Yes. If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child, you can use Kena on their behalf by scrolling down and selecting ‘Child’ on the home screen. You cannot currently use Kena on behalf of another adult, but we are working to allow you to do so in the future.
Having a consultation with a doctor on Kena is like having a consultation with a GP or a doctor at a clinic, which means your RSA ID or valid passport number is legally required to confirm your identity, just like it is when you go to any new doctor for the first time.
Your ID number or passport number is necessary in order for our doctors to give you prescriptions, treatment plans and many of the other healthcare services Kena provides. Kena asks you for your ID number or passport number when you sign up so that you can start talking to a doctor faster, and so that if you talk to a different doctor the next time, we don’t need to ask for your details again. Like all your personal information, your ID number or passport number on Kena is encrypted and stored safely, to the highest security standards.
We use the broad phrase ‘mental health professional’ because there are different kinds of qualifications you can get to treat mental health. Not all mental health professionals are psychologists or psychiatrists, for example, some are registered counsellors. On Kena, we ensure they are qualified, registered with a national body, such as the HPCSA or ASCHP, and able and equipped to help you.
Yes. All our nurses, doctors and mental health professionals are based in South Africa and are qualified, experienced and vetted by us to ensure you always receive quality care. All of our nurses are registered with the SANC and our doctors are registered with the HPCSA.
Yes! With Kena Health, you can have a consultation on behalf of a child over the age of 2 with a nurse, doctor or mental health professional. All you need to do is create a child profile in your Kena Health account by selecting ‘More’ from the menu at the bottom of the app, then ‘Add child’ and then follow the instructions. You will need the child’s RSA ID number or valid passport number to create a child profile.
A child profile is a separate patient identity for a child (over the age of 2) that an adult can create within their Kena Health account so that they can have a consultation on behalf of a child. You can have multiple child profiles linked to your Kena Health account.
Log in to your Kena Health account and select ‘More’ from the menu at the bottom of the app, then ‘Add child’. You will then need to add the child’s name, surname, sex at birth and RSA ID number or valid passport number (the child’s ID number or passport number is required to confirm the identity of the patient, which is legally required when receiving treatment from a registered clinician). That’s it – you can then start a consultation on behalf of the child.
Once you have created a child profile within your account, simply go to the home screen of the Kena Health app and select ‘Children’ under either ‘See a doctor or nurse’ or ‘Speak to a mental health professional’. Linda, Kena’s digital assistant, will then ask you which child you would like to consult on behalf of. After selecting the child you would like to have a consultation for, you can continue the consultation as normal.
It is legally required in South Africa to confirm the identity of the patient when they receive medical treatment from a registered clinician. This is why you need to create a separate child profile in order to consult on behalf of a child and why the child’s RSA ID number or valid passport number is required.
Note: All personal information, including ID and passport numbers, is encrypted and stored securely and never shared with third parties unless there is a legal requirement to do so.
Right now, Kena can only help with children over the age of 2 and so cannot help with newborns or babies as they require specialist care. However, we are working hard to be able to bring you more specialist care in the future, including being able to treat newborns and babies.
If you have a question that isn’t covered here please contact us. Alternatively, join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
There are many ways Kena reduces costs, but the most important one is that we’re able to save time for our doctors. Kena uses a digital assistant, Linda, to collect routine health information, and a team of highly trained and experienced nurses who can both collect additional information and address many common health needs themselves without you needing to see a doctor as well. This means that when you see a doctor, they already have most, if not all, of the information they need to give you an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan. This saves them time and allows us to charge significantly less for consulting a doctor.
No, you don’t need to book to see a medical professional on Kena. Just open the app and start a consultation. However, you can make a follow up appointment with a specific clinician during your consultation.
When you start a consultation, our digital assistant, Linda, will collect your medical history as soon as you start and you will be connected to a nurse, doctor or mental health professional within minutes.
Kena’s team of clinicians are available on demand, Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm, on Saturdays, from 8am to 2pm. We are closed for consultations on Sunday.
No, you won’t have to wait long.
Kena will connect you to a nurse, doctor or mental health professional within minutes.The best part is you don’t have to wait on hold. After you are added to the queue, Kena will send you a notification when a member of our healthcare team is ready to see you, so you can continue doing other things while you wait.
Using text, voice and video, the vast majority of day-to-day medical conditions can be treated through Kena. Similarly, the majority of mental health needs can be addressed by consulting a mental health professional remotely. There are important exceptions, though. These include: emergency medical and mental health situations, physical trauma (except basic wound care), and babies under 2 years of age. See ‘What can't Kena help me with?’ above for more details.
If you can’t download or open a PDF sent to you on Kena Health, it might be because your phone can’t read PDFs. In this case you can do one of two things:
1. Ask your clinician to email you the document instead. You will need to provide your email address in the chat.
2. Download a PDF reader from the Google Play Store, such as one of the following:
– For newer Android phones, download Adobe Acrobat Reader
– For older Android phones, you can download an app such as PDF Reader App
Once you’ve downloaded and installed the PDF reader app of your choice, go back to Kena Health and try downloading or opening your prescription, sick note or referral again.
A Clinical Associate is a type of medical professional registered with the HPCSA (Health Professions Council of South Africa). They have a clinical associate’s degree, practice in the primary healthcare sector, and can diagnose, treat and prescribe medication under the supervision of a doctor. They are trained specifically to take care of your needs when you get a prescription through Kena’s Express service.
Kena Health only works on Android version 8 and above. If your phone has an earlier version of Android, you will unfortunately not be able to download or use the Kena Health App. If you don’t know which version of Android your phone has, open your phone’s ‘Settings’ app, scroll to the bottom and select ‘About Phone Android Version’. This will tell you your phone’s Android version. If it starts with a 7 or below, you will not be able to use Kena on this phone.
To delete your account in the app, please navigate to Menu (☰) > Scroll down > Delete account.
To delete your account through our tech support line, email us at support@kena.health or call or WhatsApp us at 087 250 2257.
Please take note: Due to South African healthcare regulations, your medical records must be retained for a period of 6 years before they can be permanently deleted. These records are encrypted and stored securely and cannot be accessed without your permission. Our tech support line is available if you have any questions.
