Accessible healthcare, for as many people as possible.
Healthcare is built for the healthy. To get help when you are unwell, the system asks the things you are least willing or able to do: travel, queue, fill in forms, repeat your medical history. Udok was built to change the default.
How this started.
Udok was started by Dr Petrus van Niekerk, a South African general practitioner who saw what the system asked of patients and doctors in their worst moments. The drive. The queue. The paperwork. The admin that steals time from the medicine.
1 : 1 000
Fewer than one doctor for every thousand South Africans — half the global average.
2018
The year Udok launched. It has grown every year since.
He kept arriving at the same conclusion. South Africa does not have a doctor shortage as much as it has a productivity problem. The instinct is to call for more doctors. The harder, more honest answer is to let the doctors we already have spend more of their time on the medicine.
Udok was built around that answer. Compress the admin. Augment the medicine. Make care reachable in the moments people actually need it.
“South Africa does not only need more doctors. It needs the doctors it already has to be radically more productive.”
What Udok is, right now.
A 365-day primary care platform. Three audiences, one promise.
For patients
An HPCSA-registered South African doctor, online or in person, any day, for R365.
For businesses
A simple way for employers to give their teams access to quality primary care, through vouchers or a standing benefit.
For practices
A hybrid consult and practice management platform that lets doctors augment their existing practice under their own brand.
One promise
A Doctor, when you need one. Without all the hassle.
Where we are going.
Udok is building toward a connected, integrated healthcare future for South Africa. Where the question is not in-person or virtual, but how to give each patient the right encounter at the right time. Where good doctors are reachable when you actually need them. Where access to care is not a function of where you live, what your schedule looks like, or how much time you can take off work.
We are not waiting for the system to change.
We are changing the parts of it we can reach.
The team behind Udok.
A team based in Paarl, with doctors and engineers across the country.
Dr. Petrus van Niekerk
CEO & Founder
Daniel van Niekerk
Technical Manager
Lorna Kleynhans
Billing and finance
Franki Catherine Edgar
Product Owner
Henry John Nieuwenhuizen
Software engineer
Siseko Neti
Software engineer
Sarah Nieuwenhuizen
Customer support
Lauren Malgas
Customer support
The broader Udok team includes clinical operations, support, and the network of vetted doctors and healthcare providers who consult through the platform.
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