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Single European freephone number for medical on-call services

Within the EU, there are a myriad of different on-call numbers for obtaining medical assistance in case of non life-threatening emergency over the weekend and outside normal office hours. To make it easier for the citizens to access to these health services the ASHIP (Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians) Brandenburg wants to install a "Single Europe-wide freephone number for on-call services".

The following EU member states are supporters of the project: Estonia, Latvia, Malta and Hungary.

At the end of 2007 the DG INFSO of the European Commission discussed the state of application for the public consultation regarding the "Harmonized services of social value across Europe using the standardized European free '116' number range". The results of this meeting are summarized in the document joint.

The advantages for all concerned are:

• A short and catchy number, easy to remember;
  
• Calls are toll-free and without prior registration;
  
• No time-consuming searching in newspapers or calls to directory inquiries;
  
• Makes travel to other European countries much easier;
  
• Can even offer information and assistance in different languages;
  
• Reduces 112 calls for emergency services;
  
• Saves costs for health services and member states.