Medical emergency number 116 117 starts on Monday

New phone number for the medical emergency service starts nationwide on Monday

04/11/2012

A new emergency number will be launched nationwide on 16 April 2012. Patients who need to call a doctor at the weekend or at night in urgent cases can call 116 117. Thus, the emergency number for the health service standby service is standardized nationwide. In severe emergencies, such as a heart attack, 112 continues to apply.

In Germany, starting on April 16, the new emergency telephone number for the health check standby service. The new free connection is standardized in Germany on the call dial 116-117, as the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung (KBV) announced on Tuesday in Berlin. In the case of a call, the caller is automatically forwarded to the nearest medical service.

Until then, there are still the regionally different numbers, of which there are more than one hundred thousand in Germany. In part, the numbers even changed, as the KBV explained. Therefore, it was necessary to reform the system. From next Monday, the service will be bundled under the 116117 reachable.

Medical emergency service is not an emergency call for life-threatening situations
However, the medical service of the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung is not to be confused with the rescue service. In situations in which the patient's life is endangered by a stroke, accident or myocardial infarction, the nationally standardized number 112 must continue to be called. The medical on-call service is organized by the Kassenärztlichen associations together with the physicians in the field and applies to members of the statutory health insurance funds. The private funds have their own standby service, whose numbers are noted in the local telephone directories.

The patient representative of the Federal Government, Wolfgang Zöller (CSU) welcomed the change. It was according to his words one „Great progress, because it ends the clutter of more than a thousand ways to come to a doctor on a single solution. "According to the Kassenärztliche Verbandes, the conversion costs between three and five million euros.The costs are borne by the statutory health insurance the emergency call is dialed about 3.9 million times by sufferers.

Old phone number remain for the time being
Because many Internet portals and telephone directories still have the old numbers, they remain for the time being. In part, these regionally different numbers even changed daily, which is why patient representatives have long been calling for a unanimous vote. In the first few weeks, the new emergency number is not yet selectable everywhere. Federal states such as the Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg will follow later.

Numbers 116-117 select those who urgently need a doctor's consultation. The number is valid if the family doctor is not available on weekends, in the evening or at night. The on-call service then sends a doctor, who is usually taken by taxi to the patient. However, because this can take some time, sufferers who are in life-threatening conditions should choose the service of the fire brigade number 112.

Depending on the region, the caller is forwarded directly to a doctor (mostly in the countryside) or to a control center that coordinates a posting. If forwarding is not possible, a service center takes over the mediation. "With the 116-117 it will be much easier for the citizens to get outpatient medical assistance when the practices have closed," said patient adviser Zöller.

For the first time in the EU a uniform emergency number
Germany has thus become the first European country in the European Union (EU) to set the uniform number for outpatient emergency medical service. Already in 2009, the EU had reserved the 116117 throughout Europe. In the future, the number should apply to all EU states. Partly tourists should also be able to contact German-speaking agents. For medical emergencies and fire brigades, the standardized emergency number 112 applies across Europe. (Sb)

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