Out-of-Hours Doctor in Berlin: Which On-Call Practice Opens When Yours Is Shut
It is Tuesday, half past nine in the evening. The fever came back after dinner, your throat feels like sandpaper, and your Hausarzt has a recorded message saying the practice opens again on Thursday morning. Somebody in the group chat says "just go to the on-call practice at the hospital". So you look it up, and that is where most people in Berlin get it wrong for the first time.
The on-call practices in Berlin, the KV-Notdienstpraxen, do not open on a Tuesday evening at all. They open on Friday afternoon, at weekends and on public holidays, and on every other evening the door you want is a phone number: 116117. I checked the hours and the eleven addresses on the KV Berlin page on 24 October, and since 1 October they run on winter hours, until 21:00.
The emergency department door at Charité Mitte at night. Most of the on-call practices sit inside or beside an entrance like this one.
When an out-of-hours doctor in Berlin is actually open
An out-of-hours doctor in Berlin comes in three forms, and each one has its own hours. The Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Berlin (KV Berlin), the body that organises the city's practice doctors, runs all three:
KV on-call practices at eleven hospitals: Friday 15:00 to 21:00, and Saturday, Sunday and public holidays 9:00 to 21:00 from 1 October to 31 March. From April to September they close an hour earlier, at 20:00.
116117 on the phone, day and night, every day of the year. Medically trained staff take the call and send you on to the right place.
The home visit service, also day and night, for people who are too ill to get to a practice.
So the practices cover only 30 hours a week. From Monday morning to Friday at 15:00, and every night after 21:00, they are shut. On 24 and 31 December they open 9:00 to 21:00 like a holiday, which helps, because your own practice is very likely closed on both days.
My advice: learn the shape of that week now, while you are well. The night you need it, you will not want to read a German table on your phone.
The eleven on-call practices and where they are
Six practices treat adults and five treat children and teenagers. They all sit on hospital grounds, inside or next to the Rettungsstelle or Notaufnahme, the hospital's emergency department.
For adults:
DRK Kliniken Westend, Spandauer Damm 130, Charlottenburg: in the central emergency department.
Vivantes Klinikum im Friedrichshain, Landsberger Allee 49: at the Rettungsstelle.
Jüdisches Krankenhaus Berlin, Heinz-Galinski-Straße 1, Gesundbrunnen: in the central emergency department, a short walk from U Osloer Straße.
Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (ukb), Warener Straße 7, Marzahn: at the Rettungsstelle.
Vivantes Klinikum Neukölln, Rudower Straße 48, Buckow.
Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin, Hindenburgdamm 30, Steglitz.
The gate to Vivantes Klinikum im Friedrichshain on Landsberger Allee. It is the closest adult on-call practice to Alexanderplatz.
DRK Kliniken Westend on Spandauer Damm, one of two hospitals that run both an adult and a children's on-call practice.
For children and teenagers:
DRK Kliniken Westend, Spandauer Damm 130: the paediatric first-aid point.
Sana Klinikum Lichtenberg, Fanningerstraße 32: Haus B, ground floor.
Charité Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Augustenburger Platz 1, Wedding: Haus 8, the children's emergency department.
Vivantes Klinikum Neukölln, Kormoranweg 45, Buckow: the children's emergency department. This one is closed on Fridays.
St. Joseph-Krankenhaus Tempelhof, Wüsthoffstraße 15.
The emergency drive at Vivantes Klinikum Neukölln in Buckow. The children's practice here is the only one of the eleven that skips Friday.
The map below puts all eleven on one grid of the week. Tap the hour you feel ill, type your postcode, and it shows which practice is open, how far it is in a straight line, and the stop nearest the door. At any grey hour it sends you to 116117.
Monday to Thursday evening: 116117 is the door
This is the part that matters most, because it covers most of the week. When your practice is shut and you feel the problem cannot wait until the next day, call 116117. KV Berlin's own rule of thumb is simple: if it is something you would normally take to your Hausarzt, a flu, a fever, vomiting, but it cannot wait, 116117 is the right number.
What happens on the call:
Medically trained staff ask how old the patient is and what the symptoms are.
You may get advice from a doctor on the phone, which often settles it without a trip.
They can send you to an on-call practice if one is open, or to a practice that is on duty.
If you are too ill to travel, they send the home visit service, a doctor who comes to your flat. It runs day and night, for statutory and private patients, and KV Berlin says around 320 doctors take part.
If the call turns out to be an emergency, they pass it straight to the fire brigade's ambulance service.
The call is free for statutory patients. Have your health insurance card next to you, plus a list of anything you are taking. I keep both in the same drawer as the paracetamol, because at 23:00 I do not want to search for them.
116117, 112 or the Rettungsstelle
The hospital emergency departments, the Rettungsstellen, are open around the clock, and that is exactly why so many people walk in with a fever on a Wednesday night and then wait behind the real emergencies. KV Berlin and the Berlin fire brigade run a joint campaign about choosing the right number, and they have a flyer in English that is worth saving on your phone.
Call 112 for anything that feels life-threatening: chest pain, trouble breathing, signs of a stroke, heavy bleeding, a serious accident, someone who will not wake up.
Call 116117 for an illness that would normally go to your own doctor but cannot wait.
Go to an on-call practice when it is open and you can travel there yourself.
Wait for your own practice if it can honestly wait until the morning. My post on getting a doctor appointment in Berlin covers the fastest way to a slot the next day.
Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin in Marzahn. Its Rettungsstelle never closes, and its adult on-call practice opens only on Friday afternoons, weekends and holidays.
Teeth, medicines and the rest of the night
Two things fall outside 116117 completely, and both catch people out.
Teeth. The dental emergency service is separate. On Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and bridge days, one dentist per district is on duty from 9:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 18:00. The KZV Berlin lists them on its dental emergency page and reads them out on 030 89004-333. At night two dental sites run from 20:00 to 2:00. Pain treatment is free for statutory patients who show their card. My post on the dentist in Berlin covers the normal week.
Medicines. A prescription from the on-call doctor at 20:00 still needs a pharmacy. Every night a few pharmacies in each part of the city are on duty, and the Apothekerkammer Berlin shows which. The rota changes daily, so check it on the evening you need it. For poisoning, especially with children, the Charité poison line is 030 19240.
What I set up before the next fever
I did all of this on a healthy afternoon, and it took ten minutes:
Save 116117 and 112 in your phone, with names you will recognise when you are half asleep.
Find your nearest practice in the map above by your postcode, for adults and, if you have them, for the children. From Alexanderplatz, for example, the nearest adult practice is in Friedrichshain and the nearest children's practice is at the Virchow-Klinikum in Wedding.
Put your card and medication list in one place.
Check your own practice's holiday dates before Christmas, because many practices close between Christmas and New Year, exactly when the flu season peaks.
If you are new to how the system works, my posts on health insurance in Berlin and sick leave in Berlin cover the paperwork side, and the flu shot in Berlin is the cheapest way to never need this post. For what is worth knowing in Berlin each week, from changed opening hours to the first Christmas markets, my weekly newsletter is where I put my short list.
Image credits
Source and licence details for the 5 photographs used in this article.
The emergency department entrance at Charité Mitte at night (cropped): Bärbel Miemietz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The gate to Vivantes Klinikum im Friedrichshain: Fridolin freudenfett, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
DRK Kliniken Westend on Spandauer Damm: Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The ambulance drive at Vivantes Klinikum Neukölln in Buckow: Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin in Marzahn with its rescue helicopter: Lotse, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.