Dr Yasheel Aukhojee: The Man Behind Médecin à Domicile
Before there was a fleet of GPS-tracked medical vehicles, before there was a 24/7 hotline, before 130,000 families across Mauritius had a doctor they could call at any hour – there was a young physician sitting in the backseat of a car with a stethoscope in one hand and a mobile phone in the other.
That is how Médecin à Domicile began. Not in a boardroom. Not with a business plan. But with a deeply personal conviction that healthcare should come to the patient, not the other way around.
This is the story of Dr Yasheel Aukhojee – the founder, director, and driving force behind Mauritius’ most trusted home doctor service.
A Family of Medicine
Medicine was never a distant profession for Yasheel Aukhojee – it was the family language. He grew up surrounded by cousins who were doctors, in a household where conversations about patients, diagnoses, and care were part of everyday life. The desire to heal was not something he chose; it was something he absorbed.
After completing his secondary education in Mauritius, Yasheel left for Russia to study medicine – a decision that would shape both his clinical skills and his worldview. Seven years of rigorous medical training in Russia gave him a depth of clinical experience that few young doctors in Mauritius could match. He returned home with a medical degree, a hunger to practice meaningful medicine, and a head full of ideas about how healthcare could be delivered differently.
From Hospitals to the High Seas – and Back
After returning to Mauritius, Dr Aukhojee did what most young doctors do: he worked in the established system. He practised in public hospitals, private clinics, and general practice – learning the rhythms of institutional medicine from the inside.
But he also did something unusual. He became a ship doctor – a médecin de bord – providing medical care to crews and passengers at sea, far from hospitals and specialist equipment. On a ship, the doctor is the entire healthcare system. There is no referral pathway, no second opinion down the corridor, no imaging department on the next floor. The ship doctor must assess, diagnose, treat, and manage with what is available – and do it with confidence.
That experience changed how Yasheel thought about medicine. It proved to him that excellent healthcare does not require a hospital building. It requires a skilled doctor, the right equipment, and the willingness to go where the patient is.
The Moment That Changed Everything
Every founder has a moment – a single image or experience that crystallises everything that follows. For Dr Aukhojee, it was watching his grandmother.
She was elderly, in pain, and sitting in a hospital waiting queue. Waiting in silence. Waiting with patience. Waiting because that is what the system demanded of her – despite her age, despite her discomfort, despite the fact that the care she needed could have been brought to her doorstep.
That image stayed with him. “She was sitting there, with pain and patience,” he would later recall. “Sadly, we lost her that time. But something shifted inside me. I realised I didn’t want to be just any doctor – I wanted to be someone who was there for people when no one else was.”
That was the seed. The question was no longer whether to build a home doctor service. The question was how.
Starting from a Car Backseat
Médecin à Domicile did not launch with a fleet of vehicles, a hotline centre, or a team of 30 doctors. It launched from the backseat of a car.
In the early days, Dr Aukhojee literally operated from his vehicle – driving to patients’ homes with his medical bag, treating them on the spot, and taking calls on his personal phone. There was no dispatch system, no GPS tracking, no corporate structure. Just a doctor who believed that care should come to the patient, and who was willing to sacrifice his time, his comfort, and his financial security to prove it.
The service started as daytime visits only. Then patients began calling at night. Then on weekends. Then on holidays. Each expansion was not planned – it was demanded by the reality of what patients needed. If someone was sick at 2 a.m., telling them to wait until morning was not healthcare. It was bureaucracy.
So the service became 24/7. One service became two, then five, then a full spectrum of home medical care. The car backseat became a medical vehicle. The personal phone became a dedicated hotline. The solo doctor became a team.
Building the Team
Dr Aukhojee understood early that Médecin à Domicile could not be about one person. The vision was larger than any individual – it had to be a system that could deliver consistent, professional care whether he was personally present or not.
Today, the leadership team includes Dr Purahoo as Chief Operating Officer and Dr Mungar as Head of Acute Care. Together with Dr Aukhojee as Director, they have built a medical organisation with more than 30 in-house doctors, a fully staffed 24/7 hotline and dispatch centre, a fleet of company-owned, GPS-tracked medical vehicles equipped with diagnostic and treatment tools, and standardised clinical protocols that ensure every patient receives the same quality of care regardless of which doctor arrives.
The doctors are not freelancers or contractors – they are in-house professionals, registered with the Medical Council of Mauritius, ACLS-trained, and carefully selected. As Dr Aukhojee puts it: “We don’t accept mediocrity in health or in recruitment. Doctors must constantly be upgraded on guidelines and technology.”
The result: a medical team that has served over 130,000 families across Mauritius, earned a 4.9-star Google rating from over 180 reviews, and won the Best Workplaces award three years in a row.
From One Service to a Complete Healthcare System
What began as simple home consultations has grown into a comprehensive home healthcare platform. The evolution was organic – each new service was added because patients needed it.
Patients needed medication administered at home, so IV therapy and injections were added. Elderly patients needed regular monitoring, so scheduled monthly check-ups were introduced. Patients with wounds needed professional care without travelling, so wound care and suturing became standard. Hearts needed checking, so portable ECG testing was added. Patients needed hydration and vitamins, so the Hydravit IV therapy program was developed. Patients needed emergency transport, so an ambulance service was built. Patients travelling abroad needed medical accompaniment, so medical escort services were added. Patients needed remote consultations, so telemedicine was launched. Employers needed workplace health programs, so corporate doctor services were created. Insurers needed a cashless partner, so partnerships with Eagle Insurance and Jubilee Insurance were established. Families needed daily support for elderly relatives, so a carers-at-home service was introduced.
Today, Médecin à Domicile offers more than 15 distinct medical services, all delivered at the patient’s home, office, or hotel – anywhere in Mauritius, at any hour.
The Pandemic: A Defining Test
When COVID-19 reached Mauritius, Médecin à Domicile was thrust into the frontline of the national response. While many clinics closed or restricted access, home doctor services became more critical than ever – reaching patients who were isolated, vulnerable, and afraid to leave their homes.
The doctors of Médecin à Domicile became what Dr Aukhojee calls “front liners” – visiting patients with COVID symptoms, performing tests, managing fever and respiratory distress, and providing the human connection that isolation had taken away.
It was, in his own words, “a unique and risky experience.” But it was also the moment that validated the entire model. The pandemic proved that home-based healthcare is not a convenience – it is a necessity. The system held, the team performed, and public trust in the service deepened.
The Philosophy: More Than Medicine
Ask Dr Aukhojee what Médecin à Domicile is about, and the answer goes beyond medical procedures.
“It’s not just about medical visits. We focus on care that combines humanism and technology, recentering on the patient and also the medical follow-up. It’s like a family doctor. We also have foreign patients.”
For him, being a doctor requires patience, punctuality, discipline, focus – and above all, curiosity. “To be a doctor, you must be curious about the world and realise what a human being is. You must want to discover. You must be someone who can detect when something is wrong.”
This philosophy extends beyond the clinic. Dr Aukhojee is involved in volunteer work and counselling for children and people in difficulty – a commitment to community that reflects the same principle driving the business: healthcare should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their position.
Going International: From Mauritius to Dubai
The model built in Mauritius has proven exportable. Médecin à Domicile has begun expanding internationally, with operations now reaching Dubai – a market that shares Mauritius’ characteristics of a mobile, service-oriented population that values convenience and quality healthcare.
The international expansion is not a departure from the mission – it is an extension of it. The same conviction that drove a young doctor to visit patients from his car backseat in Mauritius now drives a growing organisation to bring home healthcare to new markets. The Dubai presence also serves as a platform for knowledge exchange, with Dr Aukhojee attending international medical conferences to ensure Mauritian healthcare standards continue to evolve.
“We want to help everyone, regardless of their position,” Dr Aukhojee says. “And we want to build a service that will run even if one day I am not here.”
The Vision Ahead
Dr Aukhojee’s vision for Médecin à Domicile rests on three pillars.
First, to strengthen proximity and accessibility – continuing to develop connected home medical services so that every patient in Mauritius can access fast, humane, and high-quality care wherever they are.
Second, to help evolve Mauritius’ private healthcare sector – contributing to a more integrated model where private providers, the public sector, clinics, and laboratories collaborate to ensure continuity and fluidity of care.
Third, to expand internationally – after Dubai, the goal is to establish a presence in other strategic regions, showcasing Mauritian medical expertise and national pride on a global stage.
The emergency services project, long in development, represents the next frontier. “The emergency service in Mauritius is not ready,” Dr Aukhojee has said plainly. “We must innovate if we want to help more people and provide care on time, regardless of the region.”
The deployment of fully equipped ambulances across the island is already underway – another step in the transformation from a one-man service in a car to a comprehensive healthcare system that operates around the clock, across the country, and increasingly, around the world.
The Legacy in Numbers
What started from the backseat of a car has become:
- Over 130,000 families served across Mauritius
- 30+ in-house licensed doctors
- 24/7 availability – 365 days a year
- A GPS-tracked medical fleet covering the entire island
- 15+ distinct home medical services
- 4.9-star Google rating from 180+ reviews
- Best Workplaces award winner – 3 consecutive years
- International expansion to Dubai
- Cashless partnerships with Eagle Insurance and Jubilee Insurance
- Featured in News on Sunday, Le Défi, and national press
Behind every number is a patient who received care at home instead of waiting in a queue. Behind every expansion is the same principle that started it all: healthcare should come to you.
Contact
To learn more about Médecin à Domicile or to request a home doctor visit anywhere in Mauritius, call 86121 at any time – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Visit medecin.mu or connect via WhatsApp at +230 58 01 7777.
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