The short answer: Sharing patient information on WhatsApp is not banned outright, but it is risky. POPIA treats health information as special personal information, and the HPCSA expects consent and confidentiality whatever channel you use. A photo of a wound in a group chat sits on every member's phone, often backed up to the cloud, long after the patient has gone home.
It is 2am. The registrar is in theatre, the intern has a question about a child's X-ray, and the fastest way to get an answer is a photo in the ward group. Two minutes later the answer arrives. Everyone moves on.
The photo stays. On fifteen phones, in fifteen galleries, in fifteen cloud backups.
How common it is
In a 2025 South African Medical Research Council study, 90% of participants said they used a messaging app for work, and the most common clinical use, at 48%, was asking for advice on a patient's care. A survey of doctors in KwaZulu-Natal district hospitals found almost all took part in some form of telemedicine, mostly informal, through instant messaging and chat groups, and more than half did not think of it as telemedicine at all.
Our calculation
A ward group of 20 doctors can send more than 18 messages a day.
A study of WhatsApp messages among a team of 20 doctors in a South African district hospital counted 3,340 messages in six months, every day of the week, many of them about patients.
What POPIA and the HPCSA say
Under POPIA, health information is special personal information, and it may only be processed with a lawful basis and proper safeguards. The Information Regulator can fine up to R10 million for some failures, and has already fined a government department R5 million.
The HPCSA's guidance on social media requires informed consent before any patient information is shared, even if it is anonymised, and its telehealth guidance covers how such messages must be sent and stored. Researchers have noted that most clinicians using WhatsApp in district hospitals were unaware of these guidelines.
If you do use a messaging app
- Ask first. Get the patient's consent before a photo or result leaves the room, and note it in the record.
- Share the least you can. No names, ID numbers or faces unless they are needed.
- Move it into the record. Copy the advice into the patient's file. A chat is not a clinical record.
- Then delete it. From your phone and from the group, including the backup.
How Kindredd helps
The Kindredd Care app gives a team a place to talk about patients that was built for it. Messages and files stay inside the app, instead of in personal galleries and cloud backups.
Patients choose who can see their record, and can take that access away. Kindredd is POPIA compliant and designed with HIPAA-grade safeguards in mind.
Questions people ask
Is WhatsApp POPIA compliant for patient information?
WhatsApp encrypts messages in transit, but POPIA compliance depends on how you use it: consent, sharing the minimum, keeping a proper record and deleting copies. Photos saved to phones and cloud backups are the main risk.
Can a doctor send me my results on WhatsApp?
Only with your consent, and ideally through a secure channel. You can ask for another method if you are not comfortable.
What does the HPCSA say about social media and patient information?
Its guidance says patients are entitled to privacy and confidentiality, and that informed written consent is needed before any personal or confidential information is shared on social media, even if it is anonymised.
Is your ward running on a group chat? Send this to the team.
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Sources
- South African Medical Research Council, health workers' use of mobile apps in their work (July 2025): 90% used a messaging app for work; 48% for advice on clinical management. samrc.ac.za
- A survey of telemedicine use by doctors in district hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (2022). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- A retrospective content analysis of WhatsApp messages (n = 3,340) among 20 doctors in a South African district hospital. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. ebooks.iospress.nl
- Medical Protection Society, safe use of social media for healthcare practitioners in South Africa (HPCSA guidance). medicalprotection.org
- Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, POPIA alert (July 2023): penalties and the Information Regulator's first fine. cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com
Photo: Shixart1985, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0.