Terms of Service

These Terms apply to everyone who uses Monovella. Part A applies to patients. Part B applies to specialists and laboratories ("Providers") who offer their services through Monovella: Providers accept these Terms in full, in place of a separate provider contract, so Part B is what a Provider is additionally agreeing to on top of Parts C and D, which apply to everyone. Part C covers what applies to both. Part D is general.

1. Who we are

Monovella is operated by MONOVELLA LTD, RC 9872896, of 33 Ilupeju Street, Alabata Road, Camp, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria ("Monovella", "we"). Contact: [email protected].

2. What Monovella is, and is not

• Monovella is a platform where patients find verified specialists and laboratories, book and pay for them, and follow one Care Journey.
• We are not a doctor or laboratory. Specialists and laboratories are independent professionals and businesses, not employees, agents, partners or joint venturers of Monovella. A Provider controls how it practises, sets its own fees and availability, and provides its own tools and premises. A patient's care, and any advice, test result or medicine prescribed, is the Provider's. We check a Provider's licences before it can be booked; we do not practise medicine, run a laboratory or dispense medicines.
• Concern triage is not a diagnosis and not emergency care. Before booking, a patient describes their concern. Monovella checks the words for signs of an emergency and matches the concern to a specialty; the patient then chooses a specialist. Part of that check may be done by an AI model, as the Privacy Policy explains. Triage gives no clinical advice and recommends no treatment. If it finds signs of an emergency, the patient can't book in that session: we show where to get help, and a person at Monovella is alerted and may contact them. They can come back and book later. If a patient thinks they are in danger, they should call 112 or go to the nearest hospital now. Don't wait for Monovella.
• General Practice and Gynaecology are the specialties available today. Launch supports individual, solo-practice specialists; hospital or clinic accounts are not covered.
• There is no chat. We do not move conversations to WhatsApp or any other channel. If someone asks a patient to, tell us.

Part A: Terms for patients

A1. Your account

• You need a phone number, an email and a password, confirmed with a one-time code, before you can book or pay.
• Give true information, and register under your own name: it is the name on any prescription issued to you. Keep your password private. Tell us if someone else uses your account.
• One phone number or email is one account.
• You must be 18 or older. Dependants and guardian-managed accounts are not supported.

A2. Booking and paying

1. You choose a specialist and a slot. We hold the slot for 10 minutes, shown as a countdown.
2. You pay through Paystack. The booking is confirmed only when we have verified your payment.
3. If your payment arrives after the hold has expired, we refund you or offer to rebook. We never take a slot from another patient.

A3. What you pay

Every booking costs the Provider's own fee plus a Monovella service fee of 20% of it, never more than ₦3,000. You see both, itemised, before you pay. The Provider's full fee goes to them; the service fee is ours. Once we are registered for VAT, VAT is added to the service fee and shown as its own line; the Provider's fee carries none of ours.

A4. Cancelling, missed appointments and refunds

We want you to know the cost before you confirm, so this is shown again at checkout.

If you cancel a consultation or lab booking

No charge if you couldn't attend because you, or the person the booking is for, were admitted to hospital or died. Tell us within 48 hours and we refund the charged half. We may ask for a short supporting note.

If you don't turn up

• Video: the specialist waits 10 minutes after the start. If they were there and you never joined, it is marked missed.
• In person: the specialist may mark you not attended 15 minutes or more after the start.
• The half-fee charge applies as above, and the rest plus the service fee is refunded straight away. The charge applies only where our records confirm you didn't attend.
• You have 48 hours to contest. If you contest and are right, the charged half is refunded too.
• If the specialist wasn't there, or we can't establish who was present, it is a failed consultation and you are not charged.

If it's our side or the Provider's

If the Provider cancels or doesn't show, the video call won't connect, or a laboratory can't supply what you paid for, you don't bear the cost. We refund you or offer to rebook. For an in-person visit you can report the specialist's absence for up to 24 hours after the slot.

How refunds are paid

We refund you ourselves through Paystack, without waiting for the Provider. Refunds usually reach you in about 3 to 10 working days. A partial refund is possible. Paystack's own charge on your original payment is not returned by Paystack; Monovella bears it on a refunded payment, so you don't lose it.

Nothing in these Terms takes away a right you have under consumer protection law.

A5. Your Care Journey

After a consultation your specialist writes a case note and sends you a Care Plan (a lab request, prescription, follow-up, a suggestion to see another specialist, instruction, document, or a no-further-action summary). The case note, and any images or documents your specialist attaches to it, are the specialist's private record; when they share one with you as a document in your Care Plan, you can download it from your Care Journey. A follow-up, suggestion, instruction or document is shown to you only; nothing is booked for you. If you take no action on a Care Plan for 30 days (we remind you once), the Journey lapses. A lapsed Journey stays readable and never stops you from booking again.

Your prescription. A prescription is a protected Care Journey document. It carries the specialist's MDCN number, address and contact, your details, the date it was issued, how long it is valid, and the specialist's signature. It expires, and the specialist can cancel or replace it; your permitted record then shows the current status. Don't alter it. Controlled medicines can't be prescribed through Monovella.

A6. Results

A released result is shown to you and to the specialist who requested it, each with their permitted view. If a laboratory marks a result critical, we notify you and the specialist and follow up. Do not wait for our notification to act on urgent symptoms. We check that a result is for the right booking and patient and that the file is safe; we do not judge whether it is normal.

A7. Your health information

How we use it is in the Privacy Policy and Data Policy. You give separate consent to these Terms and the service, and separate consent for us to process your health information, each recorded with its version and the time you gave it. You can withdraw the health-information consent, but then we can't provide the service.

A8. Rules of use

Don't use another person's identity, share your account, upload harmful files, try to reach Providers outside Monovella to avoid fees, abuse the platform or harass staff or Providers. We may suspend an account for serious breach and will tell you why unless the law prevents it. A suspension does not remove refunds owed to you.

Part B: Terms for Providers

This Part applies in addition to Parts C and D when you accept these Terms as a specialist or laboratory. A Provider can be booked or paid only after accepting these Terms, passing Monovella's credential review, and confirming a payout account it owns.

B1. Eligibility and verification

1. You warrant that at acceptance and throughout: (a) you hold every licence, registration and practising certificate required for what you offer (for a specialist, valid registration with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and a current annual licence; for a laboratory, the registrations required to operate one), and (b) the information and documents you submitted are true.
2. The name on your Monovella account must match the licence-holder name on your licence (for a specialist, your MDCN licence; for a laboratory, its registration and licence documents) and your other credentials. If it doesn't, we reject your submission for correction.
3. You tell Monovella within 2 working days if a licence lapses, is suspended, restricted or withdrawn, or a complaint or disciplinary proceeding is opened.

B2. Services and standards

1. You deliver what your offering says (what, price, slot length, video or in person) at the confirmed time.
2. Clinical duty: you owe patients the professional standard of care and comply with your professional code and the law. For a specialist: valid patient consent, proper records, and a case note and Care Plan after each consultation.
3. Care Plan timing. The Care Plan is due within 24 hours after the slot ends. Monovella reminds you and raises an Alert at 48 hours.
4. Attendance. For video, the specialist holds the slot for 10 minutes; for in-person visits you may mark not attended 15 minutes or more after the start, only on a true record. A false mark is a breach.
5. A prescription is issued to the patient as a protected document. It carries the medicine, strength, dose, frequency, duration and quantity; the specialist's name, MDCN number, address and contact; the patient's details; the issue date and validity period; and the specialist's signature. The specialist keeps it accurate, sets its validity (never longer than the law allows) and can cancel or replace it. Controlled medicines must not be prescribed through Monovella.
6. Laboratories classify results as routine or critical and release the real result. A critical result triggers the acknowledgment workflow; the specialist must respond as the workflow requires. Monovella's checks confirm the right booking and a safe file only, not whether the result is normal.
7. No off-platform steering: you do not move patients to other channels to avoid the platform's fees for bookings begun on Monovella.

B3. Fees, payment and payout

1. The patient pays your fee plus a Monovella service fee of 20% of it, capped at ₦3,000. Payment is split at checkout: your full fee to your account, the service fee to Monovella. Monovella does not hold your money or operate a wallet.
2. Your payout account must be in your own name, confirmed by you after an account-name lookup. Changing it needs a fresh one-time code and both channels are notified.
3. You see your payment history and earnings. Monovella tells you separately what you owe back.
4. Taxes on your income are your responsibility. Fees stated are exclusive of VAT where VAT applies. VAT on Monovella's service fee is added to the patient's price, never deducted from your fee, and Monovella issues a tax invoice for its service fee where the law requires one.

B4. Cancellations, late charge and refunds

1. The patient may cancel free at least 2 hours before the slot. Inside that window you keep half your fee (the "late-cancellation charge", a starting value) and the rest, with the service fee, is refunded to the patient. A no-show follows the same rule on a confirmed record, and the patient has 48 hours to contest.
2. If you cancel, don't attend, or the service isn't delivered (including a failed video connection or a laboratory that can't fulfil after payment), the patient is refunded and you receive no fee for it.
3. Monovella funds every refund to the patient first, without waiting for you.
4. Duty to return. Where a refund returns money you were paid, or would be paid, for a service not delivered or cancelled, you must return your part. Monovella records the amount and reason and asks for it directly. This is a condition of being on Monovella.
5. Set-off. Monovella may deduct what you owe from any amount it owes you, where the payment provider allows it, and otherwise may collect it directly.
6. Suspension. If money owed stays unpaid after Monovella has asked for it, Monovella may suspend you from discovery until it is settled. The public link then shows the profile as unavailable. Bookings already confirmed are honoured.
7. A write-off requires an admin decision, recorded and audited.
8. If a contested no-show is upheld, the charged half is refunded to the patient and recovered from you under B4.4.

B5. Suspension, revocation and termination

1. Suspension (unavailable in discovery) applies under B4.6 or on concern about safety or compliance, pending review.
2. Revocation removes you from discovery at once; your shared link then shows profile-not-found without reason. Confirmed bookings are recovered like a failed consultation. Monovella may revoke for: lost or false licence, serious patient-safety concern, fraud, repeated breach.
3. Either party may end your acceptance of these Terms as a Provider on 30 days' notice. You honour confirmed bookings or agree their transfer or refund.
4. Sections on recovery, data, confidentiality, indemnity, liability and dispute resolution survive this ending, even though you remain a patient or continue to be bound by Parts C and D as anyone using Monovella is.

B6. Insurance

You hold professional indemnity cover appropriate to your practice throughout, in an amount not less than any minimum your regulator sets, and show evidence on request.

B7. Indemnity and liability

1. You indemnify Monovella against losses, claims, costs (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your clinical acts or omissions, breach of these Terms, breach of law, or a false warranty.
2. Monovella is not liable for your clinical decisions or the outcome of care.
3. Monovella's total liability to you under Part B is limited to the service fees Monovella received for the bookings the claim concerns, except where the law does not allow limitation (fraud, wilful default).

B8. Patient data and privacy

1. Roles. For a patient's clinical record created in the course of care, you are an independent controller and answer for your own compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. Monovella is a controller for booking, payment, concern triage, Alert and audit data.
2. You use patient data only to provide care and meet your legal duties, keep it confidential and secure, and access only what your role allows. You do not export, sell or use it for marketing.
3. You must tell Monovella without delay (and within 24 hours) of a breach affecting patient data from the platform, so Monovella can meet its 72-hour duty to notify the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.
4. You cooperate with patient rights requests and with a data protection review.
5. Your own data is used as set out in the Privacy Policy, including a public profile showing only what you approved.

B9. Confidentiality and intellectual property

1. Each party keeps the other's non-public information confidential.
2. You own your clinical work and content. You grant Monovella a non-exclusive licence to display your approved profile, name, credentials and offerings on the platform for as long as you are listed, and to use booking and performance data in aggregate. Monovella owns the platform, brand and code.
3. You do not use Monovella's name or logo except as allowed.

Schedule B1: Specialist

Consultation types (video, in person at your own licensed location), MDCN number, prescription rules (B2.5), Care Plan and case note duty, in-person location is yours to license and register.

Schedule B2: Laboratory

Sample handling and result release, routine and critical classification, no-show marking, tests offered and turnaround stated in the offering.

Part C: Our responsibility

• We take care in verifying Providers and running the platform. We are responsible for the platform, payments and records we control.
• We are not responsible for a Provider's clinical decisions, advice, results or medicines. A patient's remedy for those is against the Provider, and we will help with the Provider's complaint route.
• Nothing here excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or anything the law does not allow us to exclude.
• Subject to that, our total liability to a patient for a booking is limited to the amount they paid for it. Our total liability to a Provider is set out in B7.3.
• We are not liable for delays caused by things outside our control, such as network or Provider outages, but we will refund or rebook as in A4.

Part D: General

D1. Complaints and disputes

1. Write to [email protected]. We reply within 5 working days.
2. If not resolved, we will try mediation in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
3. You may go to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission for data issues, or the courts.

Governing law: the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

D2. Changes and ending

We may change these Terms; for a material change we tell you before it applies and ask you to accept it again (for a Provider, in-app, with the version and time recorded). Bookings already paid follow the Terms in force when they were made. You may close your account, or stop offering your services, any time. Records we must keep are handled as in the Privacy Policy.

D3. Entire agreement and other terms

These Terms are the entire agreement between you and Monovella for using the platform. We give notice by email. A Provider's acceptance may not be assigned without our consent. If any part of these Terms is unenforceable, the rest still applies. Not enforcing a term once doesn't waive it later.