SAdocs Hub Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction

1.1. Welcome to SAdocs Hub, owned and operated by SADOCS Navigate (Pty) Ltd, Registration Number: 2021/919464/07 situated at Penthouse Suite 10th Floor, 74 Short Market Street, Cape Town (“SADOCS”) a secure online platform exclusively for registered medical practitioners with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), and third-party entities offering products or services to doctors in South Africa. This platform facilitates professional development, career opportunities, and clinical discussions among doctors.

1.2. These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the SAdocs Hub website (the “Website”) and its services (the “Services”).

2. Terms of Service

2.1. BY USING OUR WEBSITE YOU ARE INDICATING YOUR ACCEPTANCE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. Should you or any person that accesses the Website (“you” or “user”) disagree with any of the Terms, you or that user must refrain from accessing the Website and/or using our Services.

2.2. If you are under the age of 18, you must obtain your parents’ or legal guardians’ advance authorization, permission and consent to be bound by these Terms before purchasing any products or using any Services.

2.3. SADOCS reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to amend and/or replace any of, or the whole of the Terms or the Website or Services. Such amendments shall supersede and replace any previous Terms and shall be made available on the Website. Each time a user accesses the Website and/or uses the services, the user shall be deemed to have consented, by such access and/or use, to the Terms, as amended and/or replaced by SADOCS from time to time. If you are not satisfied with the amended Terms, you should refrain from using the Website.

3. User Accounts and Subscriptions

3.1. User Eligibility:

3.1.1. Only registered medical practitioners with the HPCSA (“Registered Doctors”) are eligible to create user accounts and access the full range of Services.

3.1.2 Registered final-year medical students with the HPCSA (“Registered Students”) are eligible to create user accounts with limited access.

3.1.3. Third-party Affiliates registered and approved by SADOCS such as recruiters, sellers, property agencies, course providers, financial advisors, etc (“Registered Affiliates”), can create accounts for limited access to sections of the website as it pertains to their area of expertise, for advertising their products or services to doctors, subject to eligibility criteria and approval by SAdocs Hub.

3.1.4. The general public (unregistered users) will have limited access to the Website contents.

3.2. Subscription Levels: There are 3 different subscription levels with varying access to features.

3.2.1. Free Accounts: Non-registered users can view limited information on the Website such as public sector job vacancies with links to the original posts, Internship reviews, course catalogues (courses offered by affiliate course providers but advertised on our site), guidelines on starting a private practice, and static blogs as displayed from time to time. This is subject to change at the discretion of the Website owner, SADOCS.

3.2.2. Paid subscriptions for Registered Users

3.2.2.1. Registered Doctors: these users are required to register on our Website to gain access to all the forum categories, topic conversations, channels, and chat features.

3.2.2.2. Registered Students: these users are required to register on our Website to gain access to some of the forum categories and topic conversations.

3.2.2.3. Registered Affiliates pay a listing or a monthly fee to advertise their products or services to doctors on the Website.

3.3. Verification: SADOCS is hereby authorised to verify the identity, registration, compliance and professional status of all users, and registered users hereby authorise SADOCS to verify their Identity Number, HPCSA registration and status, company registration and status as called for from time to time.

3.4. Payments: SADOCS uses payment gateways such as Payfast or Stripe for secure payment processing. By subscribing, you authorize recurring payments until you cancel your subscription, subject to the terms and conditions of PayFast or Stripe or any other payment portal used from time to time.

4. Content of the Website

4.1. SADOCS reserves the right to make improvements, change or discontinue, without notice, any resource, aspect or feature of the Website and any information or content on the Website.

4.2. SADOCS may use the services of third parties to provide information on the Website. SADOCS has no control over this information and makes no representations or warranties of any nature as to the accuracy, appropriateness or correctness of third-party information displayed on our Website. You agree that such information is provided “as is” and that SADOCS and its online partners shall not be liable for any losses or damages that may arise from the user’s reliance on it, howsoever these may arise.

4.3. SADOCS makes no representations or warranties, whether express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of any information, data and/or content on the Website, including without limitation:

4.3.1. SADOCS expressly disclaims all implied warranties, including without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy of the Website and/or its Services;

4.3.2. whilst SADOCS has taken reasonable measures to ensure the integrity of the Website and its contents, no warranty, whether express or implied, is given that any files, downloads or applications available via this Website are free of viruses, or any other data or code which has the ability to corrupt, damage or affect the operation of the user’s system; and

4.3.3. SADOCS disclaims any responsibility for the verification of any user, advertisement, course or any other information, or any claim(s) by users. Information published on this Website may be done so in the format in which SADOCS receives it and statements from external parties are accepted as fact. In other words, all information or opinions posted on the Website are those of the author and not of SADOCS, and we accept no liability for these views.

4.4. Users (including Registered Doctors, Registered Students and Registered Affiliates) hereby unconditionally and irrevocably indemnify SADOCS and agree to hold SADOCS free from all loss, damages, claims and/or costs, of whatsoever nature suffered or incurred by it/them.

5. Content Access

5.1. Content Availability: The majority of the Website’s content is not publicly accessible. Specific topics are accessible based on your subscription level and user type (Registered Doctors, Registered Students or Registered Affiliates).

5.2. User-Generated Content: The Website allows Registered Users to post information, educational courses, and to participate in clinical and other discussions through chats, comments and forums. Doctors are solely responsible for the content they generate and as a result of this, they warrant that they will abide by the HPCSA GUIDELINES FOR GOOD PRACTICE IN THE HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONS ETHICAL GUIDELINES ON SOCIAL MEDIA, as updated or supplemented from time to time, which can be accessed here: https://www.hpcsa-blogs.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HPCSA-Booklet-16-Ethical-Guidelines-on-Social-Media.pdf , which shall form a part hereof and must be understood to be included in these Terms.

5.3. Privacy- interception: Subject to the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act (“RIC”), Act 70 of 2002, the user agrees that SADOCS may intercept, block, read, delete, disclose and use all communications sent or otherwise communicated to SADOCS, its employees, directors and agents, whether directly or on the Website. The user agrees that his or her consent satisfies the requirements of Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 and RIC for consent in “writing” as defined.

5.4. SADOCS does not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to our services, as the operation of our Website may be interfered with as a result of several factors which are outside of our control.

5.5. If any provision of these Terms is held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be struck out from these Terms and the remaining provisions shall be enforced to the full extent of the law.

5.6. SADOCS’s failure to act concerning a breach by you or others does not constitute a waiver of our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.

5.7. You shall not be entitled to cede or assign your rights or delegate your obligations in terms of these Terms to any third party without the prior written consent of SADOCS.

6. Community Guidelines

6.1. General: All users must adhere to these community guidelines to maintain a professional and respectful environment. The Website may only be used for lawful purposes.

6.2. Recruiters, Sellers and Property Agencies:

6.2.1. Listing Fees: Registered Affiliates must create accounts and may be required to pay subscription or listing fees to advertise their opportunities, products, or services on the Website. Listing and subscription fees will be determined by SADOCS.

6.2.2. Accuracy of Listings: Registered Affiliates hereby warrant and remain responsible for ensuring the accuracy and legality of their listings. SADOCS does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any listings on the Website.

6.3. Commentators: Users engaging in clinical discussions or commenting on posts must adhere to the community guidelines set forth by SADOCS in its Policy Document. Comments that are offensive, disrespectful, or violate the rights of others or these Terms will be removed, and users may be subject to account suspension or termination.

6.4. Third-Party Affiliates: Registered Affiliates. must adhere to SADOCS’s guidelines when posting job vacancies or medical property listings, amongst others. Listings must be up to date, accurate, non-discriminatory, and comply with all applicable laws and regulations, and Registered Affiliates hereby warrant their compliance with all applicable Terms and indemnify SADOCS against any liability, including legal costs on the highest scale.

6.5. Prohibited Activities: These include, but are not limited to:

6.5.1. Posting defamatory, harassing, profane, objectionable or discriminatory content.

6.5.2. Sharing false or misleading information.

6.5.3. Promoting illegal activities or unlicensed medical practices.

6.5.4. Spamming or commercially soliciting other users (You must not use any part of the content on our Website for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us (or our licensors as appropriate).).

6.5.5. Violating intellectual property rights of others;

6.5.6. provide, disclose, divulge or make available to or permit the use of or give access to the Website by persons other than the user;

6.6. Enforcement: SADOCS reserves the right to remove content, and suspend or terminate any user accounts for violations of these guidelines.

7. Privacy & Cookie Policy

7.1. SADOCS takes your privacy seriously and is committed to protecting your personal information. We use the personal information that we collect from you in accordance with this Privacy and Cookie Policy. Personal information when used in this Policy means information that can identify you as an individual or is capable of identifying you. By personal information, we don’t mean general, statistical, aggregated or anonymised information.

7.2. CONSENT: Your use of our Website and Services signifies your consent to us collecting and using your personal information as specified below.

7.3. We collect the personal information you may provide to us when communicating with us. If registering on our Website, we will ask for your name, address, e-mail address, professional credentials and/or registration and any other relevant information about you or the business entity you represent, or when corresponding with us via any communication platform.

7.4. You give consent to us to:

7.4.1. store your personal information in South Africa or cross border on our hosting databases;

7.4.2. contact you (by email, SMS, WhatsApp or another available platform);

7.4.3. use your personal information internally for the general administration of our Website or Services or for our affiliate partners and their websites;

7.5. We may use your information to confirm SADOCS or our affiliate partner events and programmes or to confirm that your requests/orders have been received or delivered to you; to validate you as a customer when using our services and contacting our help desk; to prevent and detect criminal activity, fraud and misuse of or damage to our Services or Website; to prosecute those responsible and to contact you to invite you to form part of our consumer panel or various research groups, etc.

7.6. We keep your information for such periods according to the use or purpose attached to the information. Unless there is a specific legal requirement requiring us to keep your information, however, we will not keep it for longer than necessary for the purpose for which the information was collected or for which it is to be processed.

7.7. We may disclose your information to our third-party affiliate partners who are involved in the Website, or delivery of Services to you.

7.8. Our Website allocates cookies on your computer/electronic device during the registration process. These cookies will hold information collected during your registration and will allow us to recognise you as a customer and provide you with the services you require. You can alter the settings of your browser to prevent automatic acceptance of our cookies and to prompt you every time a cookie is sent to you or to allow you to choose not to receive cookies at all. In addition, you can delete cookies on your electronic devices.

7.9. If you’d like us to stop processing your information for marketing purposes, please write to us at the address set out in clause ‎13 below.

8. Disclaimer and Limitations of Liability

8.1. Content Reliance: You rely on the Website content at your own risk. The content does not constitute medical advice and should not be a substitute for professional medical judgment, nor does it guarantee employment or any successful transaction.

8.2. Limitation of Liability: To the extent permitted by law, SADOCS excludes all liability for any damages arising from your use of the Website or Services.

9. Intellectual Property

9.1. Ownership: All content on the Website, including but not limited to user-generated comments, blogs, clinical discussions, job listings, medical property listings, and whatever other products or services are advertised on the platform, are the intellectual property of SADOCS or its licensors. Users may not reproduce, distribute, or exploit the content without prior written consent from SADOCS.

9.2. License: SADOCS grants you a limited, non-exclusive license to access and use the Website and Services in accordance with these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved and no right, title or interest in any proprietary resources, material or information contained in this Website is granted to you. Except with SADOCS’s express written permission, no proprietary resources or material from this Website may be copied or retransmitted.

10. Termination

10.1. Termination by SADOCS: SADOCS reserves the right to terminate or suspend user accounts, restrict access to certain features, or remove content from the Website without prior notice, at its discretion.

10.2. Termination by User: Users may terminate their accounts at any time by contacting SADOCS. Any fees paid are non-refundable unless explicitly stated otherwise.

11. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

11.1. These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of South Africa.

11.2. Any disputes arising from these Terms will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the South African courts. Users agree to be liable for all legal costs incurred by it under this or as a consequence of this agreement, use of the Website or Services.

12. Entire Agreement

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and SADOCS regarding your use of the Website and Services.

13. Contact Us

In compliance with section 43(1) of the ECT Act, the following is noted:

13.1. Company name: SADOCS Navigate (Pty) Ltd.

13.2. Registration number: 2021/919464/07.

13.3. Physical address: The Penthouse Suite, 10th Floor, 74 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town, South Africa.

13.4. Website Address: www.sadocs.discourse.group

13.5. E-mail address: info@sadocs.co.za

13.6. Directors: Chloe Redelinghuys.

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at info@sadocs.co.za

By using the SAdocs Hub Website, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

Version: April 2024.