Dr Ethan Chellan

Dr Chellan is a dispensing GP in George seeing patients of all ages: managing acute illness, chronic disease, children’s health, HIV, and mental health from a single practice in Prince Vintcent Square.

Dr Chellan is, first and foremost, a family doctor. He sees patients of all ages and genders and practises full-scope general medicine, the way it was meant to be done.

His day-to-day scope covers acute illness and injury, chronic disease management (diabetes, hypertension, asthma, COPD, thyroid disorders, cholesterol, epilepsy), preventive health screening, mental health, men’s and women’s health, occupational health assessments, driver’s licence medicals, sick certificates, and walk-in consultations.

He holds a dispensing licence, performs minor procedures and administers drips and injections on-site. He is certified in Basic Surgical Skills and holds PALS, ACLS, and BLS certifications for emergency care.

Dr Chellan is the first line of care for his patients. He refers only when it is genuinely necessary, not as a default.

Dr Chellan is not a paediatrician or a neonatologist. He is a general practitioner with formal postgraduate training in child health, an important distinction.

He holds the Diploma in Child Health (CMSA) from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa, a qualification that requires supervised clinical training followed by written and clinical OSCE examinations. He has also passed the Part I (Primary) FC Paed(SA) examination at registrar level.

His paediatric scope includes newborn checks, childhood immunisations, growth and developmental monitoring, acute childhood illness, paediatric asthma, allergies, ADHD, febrile convulsions, and developmental concerns.

He knows the limits of primary-level paediatric care and refers to a specialist when a child genuinely needs one.

Dr Chellan holds the Diploma in HIV Management (CMSA), a comprehensive postgraduate qualification exceeding 1 000 credit points. He is an advanced HIV clinician, not a doctor who simply writes repeat ARV scripts.

His scope includes ART initiation and long-term monitoring, virological failure workup, drug resistance interpretation, second- and third-line regimen selection, TB co-infection management, opportunistic infection diagnosis and treatment, PrEP counselling and prescribing, and paediatric HIV care.

Full-spectrum HIV care with a dispensing GP holding the Diploma in HIV Management (CMSA) is uncommon in private general practice.

Dr Chellan holds an FPD certification in Clinical Management of Mental Health. Mental health is a core part of his practice, not a side note.

He manages depression, generalised anxiety, burnout, ADHD in both adults and children, chronic insomnia, postnatal depression, and adjustment disorders. He provides ongoing medication management and knows when to involve a psychiatrist or psychologist.

Dr Chellan built NeoHealth’s digital infrastructure from the ground up: the patient portal, online booking system, and cloud-based medical records. He holds an AWS Cloud Practitioner certification and an FPD Telemedicine certification.

He believes that the best medicine comes from never being satisfied with “good enough”, and that applies to the way a practice runs just as much as to the way a patient is treated.