Medical on-call service in Hanover: New system starts now!

Medical on-call service in Hanover: New system starts now!

On June 15, 2025, a significant innovation in the medical on-call service will come into force in Hanover. The Lower Saxony Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVN) has announced that it will abolish the on-call service in its current form on weekends and outside the regular opening hours of medical practices. Instead, telephone health advice will increase, and the number is already familiar 116117 remains a central contact point for citizens.

As already mentioned by the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung reports, in the future a dispatcher will assess the severity of illnesses or injuries on the phone in advance. If necessary, callers will receive a call back from a doctor who will provide care over the phone or even via video conversation. For cost-related reasons, home visits are mainly maintained for immobile people when there is a medical indication, but not in the usual form.

Extensive support from specialists

The Johanniter will play an important role in the new on-call service across the country. With a team of around 40 doctors, 55 drivers and 100 health professionals, they should be ready at any time. The medical management is taken over by Claudia Höfer, who, as a former senior physician, already has extensive experience in emergency services. This is particularly important when you consider that, according to KVN board member Thorsten Schmidt, there have always been positive experiences when implementing the system. In 65% of cases, the new approach allowed patients' concerns to be resolved quickly.

The changes are necessary because it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract resident doctors for on-call duty, especially in the rural regions of Lower Saxony. Nevertheless, the existing infrastructure remains unchanged in the evenings and on weekends for the time being. The aim remains to make the on-call service for non-life-threatening illnesses more efficient in order to better respond to the actual needs of the population.

Education and awareness raising

In parallel to the changes to the on-call service, there is an information campaign entitled “The right number at the right moment”. This was brought into being by the KVN, the Lower Saxony District Association and the Lower Saxony City Association. The aim here is to raise citizens' awareness of how to use the emergency numbers 112 for life-threatening cases and 116117 for acute complaints. The action-packed core of the campaign is an educational film that informs the population about the correct use of emergency numbers.

Senior officials emphasize that many calls to emergency numbers are not made for urgent health reasons, which is particularly critical in the current situation. Doctors on the phone can provide an initial health assessment, issue electronic prescriptions and issue certificates of incapacity for work, which could cover a large proportion of inquiries if the right number is dialled.

For further information on the restructuring of the on-call service and the associated innovations, we recommend visiting the platform KVN, which provides comprehensive information about the new regulation.