When to Call an Emergency Doctor? Medical On-Call Services in Hamburg

For acute danger to life, always 112, it dispatches the Hamburg fire brigade's ambulance service with an emergency physician and is free, valid across Europe and available around the clock. For acute but not life-threatening complaints outside office hours, 116 117 is responsible, run in Hamburg as Arztruf Hamburg by KV Hamburg. If you want fast, personal help at home, you can reach RAB Arztbesuche daily from 6 am to midnight on +49 40 524 729 688.

112 is the emergency number for life-threatening emergencies with ambulance and emergency physician. 116 117 is the on-call medical service for acute but non-life-threatening complaints outside regular office hours and can refer you to one of Hamburg's on-call clinics or arrange a home visit.

The Hamburg fire brigade's control centre dispatches immediately for life-threatening reports and works to an eight-minute target from the call; that target is not written into the Hamburg emergency-services act, and the actual arrival time depends on traffic, time of day and call volume. A private house call from RAB Arztbesuche for non-life-threatening complaints usually takes place within 60 to 90 minutes, without drawing on the ambulance service.

Reported waits vary widely, from one to six hours, depending on weekday, time of day and load. Flu weekends regularly produce longer waits. 116 117 itself does not promise guaranteed times. A private house call from RAB, by contrast, usually arrives within 60 to 90 minutes.

Home visits by the statutory service are possible but are prioritised by urgency and generally carried out only when transportability is verifiably lacking; during high demand arrival may be delayed. Those needing a planned, short arrival time may alternatively use a private medical house call, typically within 60 to 90 minutes.

Yes, for statutory (GKV) patients the on-call service (116 117) bills the health insurer directly, and the call itself is free. Private patients submit the invoice to their insurer. RAB's private house call, by contrast, is a self-pay or private-insurance service under the GOÄ, usually 150–300 €.

Yes, as a self-pay patient. The invoice follows GOÄ rates, usually 150–300 € per visit; statutory insurers usually do not reimburse private house calls. Some supplementary private policies cover part of the cost. In return, the doctor arrives on a predictable schedule within 60–90 minutes, with no waiting room and with prescription and sick note issued on site.

The finder above lists all ten Hamburg on-call locations with address, borough and live opening status: six for adults, among them Notfallpraxis Altona at Stresemannstraße 54, the clinic at the UKE on Martinistraße 52, the clinic at the Bundeswehrkrankenhaus on Lesserstraße 180 and Notfallpraxis Harburg at Eißendorfer Pferdeweg 52, plus four pediatric locations including Altonaer Kinderkrankenhaus and Kinderkrankenhaus Wilhelmstift. To avoid travel and waiting rooms, you can instead order a private doctor to your home.

The pharmacy on-call service names it free of charge on 0800 00 22 833, or on 22 8 33 without an area code from a German mobile for at most 0.69 € per minute. The finder above shows the same list under the pharmacies tab, filtered across Hamburg's seven boroughs; pharmacies rotate the duty, and one shift usually runs from 9 am to 9 am the next day. A prescription for the night is issued on the spot during an RAB house call, daily from 6 am to midnight.

Hamburg is covered by the GIZ-Nord poison information centre, reachable around the clock on 0551 19 240 at Göttingen University Medical Center, with advice in German and English. Have ready what was taken, how much, when, and the age of the person affected. If there is unconsciousness, a seizure or breathing trouble, call 112 first.