Finding a doctor and using the out-of-hours service

What this is about

It is Saturday evening, I feel ill, but it is not an emergency. Where do I turn — and how can I get an appointment at a practice more quickly during the week?

Up front: the nationwide number 116117 connects you to the out-of-hours medical service (ärztlicher Bereitschaftsdienst) and — in Berlin — also to the appointment service of the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Berlin (KV Berlin, the Berlin association of statutory health insurance physicians) [1][2]. In life-threatening cases, 112 applies [2].

Step by step

1. Assess the situation: 112 or 116117? On 116117.de, the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung (National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians) writes: anyone who is “not life-threateningly ill” but “cannot wait until the next consultation hours” receives care from general practitioners and specialists in the out-of-hours medical service; “In life-threatening cases, please alert the emergency medical service on the emergency number 112.” [2] If you are unsure, according to the Bezirksamt Mitte (Mitte district office) you can use the “Patienten-Navi der KV” (the KV's patient navigator) [1]. hauptstadt.net does not name any symptoms and makes no assessment.

2. Call 116117. According to 116117.de, the number works “without an area code and applies throughout Germany”; the call is “free of charge”, and the patient service can be “reached around the clock – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week” [2]. There you can find out, among other things, where the nearest practice in the out-of-hours service is located [2].

3. On-call practices of the KV Berlin. According to the Bezirksamt Mitte: “Outside consultation hours, the KV on-call practices [KV-Notdienstpraxen] provide outpatient medical care.” The KV Berlin runs on-call practices “for adults as well as for children and adolescents” [1]. Locations and times are on the KV Berlin's website (link in [1]).

4. During the week: appointment service centre. According to the Bezirksamt Mitte, the Terminservicestelle (appointment service centre) of the KV Berlin helps “people with statutory health insurance who live in Berlin to arrange appointments quickly with doctors or psychotherapists”; it can be reached via 116117, kvberlin.de or 116117-termine.de [1].

5. Search for a practice yourself. The Bezirksamt Mitte refers to the “Arzt- und Psychotherapeutensuche der KV Berlin” (the KV Berlin's search for doctors and psychotherapists) [1]. hauptstadt.net does not keep a directory of doctors itself.

6. Nursing care and hospitals. For questions about nursing care, the Bezirksamt Mitte names the Berliner Pflegestützpunkte (Berlin care support centres); for hospital information, the Bundes-Klinik-Atlas (federal hospital atlas) [1].

Who is responsible?

Your next step

Read the page “116117 or 112?” of the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung: https://www.116117.de/de/aerztlicher-bereitschaftsdienst.php [2]

Sources

The sources are in German; quotations in the text are our translations.