Malta is a small island, and that shapes healthcare here in a way it does not elsewhere. The waiting room has eyes. The pharmacist may be somebody your mother knows. For a great deal of ordinary medicine that does not matter at all, and for some of it, it is the entire reason a person waits two years before asking anyone.
Seeing a doctor online removes the room without removing the doctor. This guide sets out exactly what that involves here, what it costs, and, just as importantly, when it is the wrong choice and you should be seen in person.
What does seeing a doctor online actually involve?
It is a real medical appointment, held on video instead of in a room. You answer a set of questions before it, the doctor reads your answers before you meet, and then you talk for 20 minutes. Nothing about the clinical part is abbreviated. What is removed is the travel, the waiting and the being seen waiting.
At Carisma Medical it runs in four steps, and the order matters:
- A free online assessment. Ten minutes of questions about your health, your history and what has brought you here. It costs nothing, it asks for no payment details, and you can stop at any point.
- You choose your appointment and pay for it. You pick a slot that suits you and pay the €59 consultation fee when you book. You are booking a doctor for 20 minutes, and that is what the fee is for.
- The consultation. A 20-minute video call with a Malta-registered doctor who has already read your assessment, so the time is spent on your questions rather than on repeating your answers.
- What follows. If the doctor decides that treatment is appropriate, the prescription is sent to you. You collect the medicine at whichever pharmacy in Malta or Gozo you already use.
Who is the doctor, and are they actually registered in Malta?
Yes. Every consultation is with a doctor registered with the Medical Council of Malta, which is the body that licenses doctors to practise here. That matters for three practical reasons rather than as a formality.
- A prescription written by a Malta-registered doctor is dispensed by Maltese pharmacies as a matter of course. A prescription from a doctor registered somewhere else may not be.
- The doctor is bound by Maltese professional standards and by professional secrecy, and answers to a Maltese regulator if they fall short.
- They know the system you are actually in: what your pharmacy stocks, what the public system covers, where to send you when the answer is not us.
You will notice that no doctor is named or pictured anywhere on this website. That is not evasiveness. Maltese law keeps practitioners out of advertising, so a clinic here cannot put a doctor’s face on a promotion the way an overseas app can. You meet your doctor where it counts, which is inside your own care.
What does an online doctor cost in Malta?
A consultation is €59. The assessment beforehand is free. Where care continues month to month, that is €29 a month, and it starts only after you have been seen. Weight, hair and mental well-being are the programmes that run on. Sexual health and testosterone carry no monthly fee at all, because they are bought one consultation at a time.
Both figures include any tax. If the doctor prescribes, the medicine is a separate purchase. Collect at any pharmacy in Malta or Gozo. You pay the pharmacy directly, at its own price. We never sell or ship medicine. No fee on this site has the cost of a medicine inside it. Full particulars are on our pricing page and our legal information page.
One thing to be clear about, because it is the question people ask last and worry about first: you pay for the consultation whether or not the doctor decides to prescribe. That is not a catch. It is what it means for the decision to be a clinical one. A service that only charged when it said yes would have an obvious reason to keep saying yes.
When should you not use an online doctor?
This is the part most services leave out, so here it is plainly. Online care suits conditions that can be assessed by history, by conversation, and where necessary by a test arranged for you. It does not suit anything that needs someone to physically examine you today.
Beyond emergencies, there are ordinary situations where a room is simply the better tool. A lump that needs to be felt. An ear that needs to be looked into. A child, since this service is for adults only. Chronic disease that a doctor who has known you for years is already managing well. A doctor here will tell you when that is the case, and telling you is part of what the consultation is for.
Is it private, and who finds out?
Nobody is told anything without you. Your assessment is health data and is treated as such under EU law, and it is not shared with your employer, your insurer, your family or your regular doctor unless you ask us to share it. If you want your GP to have a copy, say so and we will send it. If you would rather nobody had it, that is the default.
What appears on your bank statement is the company name, not the condition. What you collect at the pharmacy is a prescription like any other prescription. Some care is nobody’s business but yours.
What can you actually be seen for?
Twelve conditions across four areas. Medical weight loss and hair growth each run as an ongoing programme. Sexual health covers erectile difficulties, premature ejaculation, testosterone, contraception, sexually transmitted infections and two of the most common intimate infections, each bought one consultation at a time. Mental well-being covers anxiety, insomnia and adult attention difficulties, month to month.
If what brought you here is not on that list, the honest answer is that we are not the right service for it, and a doctor here will say so rather than find something to sell you.
How soon can you be seen?
You choose from the slots that are genuinely open when you book, and the earliest one is shown to you as you choose. We do not publish a promise about how fast that is, because the honest answer changes by the hour and a promise that is true on Tuesday is a lie by Friday.
If you need to move an appointment, you can cancel for a full refund up to two hours before it starts. Inside two hours, or if you do not attend, the fee is not refunded, because the doctor’s time was held for you and cannot be given to anybody else. If we cancel on you, for any reason, you are refunded in full.