Your Child Needs a Hospital in Cologne: Riehl, Lindenthal or Porz, and What the Triage Wait Really Means

Two Big Hospitals, Two Doors, and a Third in Porz

When a child is sick at 11 pm, you do not want to compare options. This page is meant to be read now, once, so that the choice is already made.

Cologne has two large pediatric hospitals with emergency departments that are staffed around the clock, and a smaller third one in Porz (described below the table):

Phone numbers come from the hospitals’ own pages; the Riehl emergency page was last updated on 6 June 2024, so if the number does not connect, use the Kliniken Köln switchboard.

Riehl: The Kinderkrankenhaus Amsterdamer Straße

The Kinderkrankenhaus Amsterdamer Straße is part of the Kliniken der Stadt Köln. Its departments include pediatrics, pediatric surgery and urology, anesthesia, radiology, child and adolescent psychiatry, a social pediatric center and a child protection outpatient service. The 2024 quality report lists 264 beds, of which 68 are in psychiatry and 10 in a Level 1 perinatal center located at the Holweide site, and shows the hospital in the basic emergency tier with the module for pediatric emergency care.

What the emergency department page tells parents:

• The emergency department is staffed around the clock, 365 days a year.
• Patients are treated by urgency, not by arrival. Nursing staff make a first assessment and set the order, and waits can be long at busy times.
• Emergency doctors do not give medical advice by phone.
• For life-threatening cases the number is 112. Outside practice hours, 116 117 is the on-call line.

Next to it, a pediatric on-call practice run by the doctors’ association (the KV Notdienstpraxis) is housed in the hospital at the same address.

Lindenthal: The Uniklinik Köln Kinderklinik

The Klinik und Poliklinik für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin at the Uniklinik Köln has its main entrance at Kerpener Straße 62. Its emergency department is staffed 24 hours a day, with the emergency number +49 221 478-4358. For life-threatening situations the clinic itself points to 112.

Parking is the weak point. The clinic says parking spots near the building are very limited and chargeable (30 minutes free), and recommends the underground garages during the day. Those have a maximum clearance of 2 meters. A parent without a car will find tram 9 and 13 stops close by.

The pediatric on-call practice here is a separate service from the hospital emergency department. According to the Uniklinik’s emergency page, it is run by office-based pediatricians, works closely with the children’s clinic, and is reached in building 26 via the Gleueler Straße 115 entrance. For a sat-nav, the clinic suggests the address Gleueler Straße 115 for the practice.

Porz: The Kinderklinik at Krankenhaus Porz am Rhein

The Krankenhaus Porz am Rhein has a separate Kinderklinik building next to the main hospital, Urbacher Weg 19, 51149 Köln, with a pediatric emergency department and 48 beds on three wards (neonatology, general pediatrics and sleep medicine). The Notaufnahme der Kinderklinik is open around the clock, on 02203 566-1256 or 02203 566-1440, and the hospital says it has primary responsibility outside the opening hours of the KV pediatric on-call practice housed at the same hospital. It is smaller than Riehl and the Uniklinik, but it is the closest children’s emergency department for many families in Porz and the south-east of the city. For life-threatening cases, call 112 as everywhere.

Which Door for Which Situation

The Uniklinik’s own advice matches this table: call your pediatrician during their office hours, use 116 117 outside them, and call 112 or go to the emergency department if there is danger to life or a fear of serious harm.

The On-Call Practices: Hours You Can Plan Around

KV Nordrhein lists three pediatric Notdienstpraxen in Cologne: Köln-Riehl (Klinik der Stadt Köln, Amsterdamer Straße 59), Köln-Lindenthal (Universitätsklinikum, Kerpener Straße 62) and Köln-Porz (Krankenhaus Porz am Rhein, Urbacher Weg 19, 51149 Köln). The hours differ by season:

An older Kliniken Köln page still lists later closing times (until 23:00). The KV page and the Uniklinik page agree on the table above, so treat the longer hours as outdated until a current source says otherwise.

On Saturdays, Sundays and holidays between 10:00 and 22:00, the Uniklinik’s page also names a children’s emergency video consultation through 116 117, with booking at kvno.de/kinder. Whether you can use it depends on the symptoms and on the service that day.

Before You Leave Home

Preparation shortens the visit even if it does not shorten the wait.

• Insurance card. Take your child’s Krankenkassenkarte, or the insurance details if the card is not issued yet.
• Vaccination record and U-Heft. Doctors usually ask for both.
• Medication and allergies. A photo of the packaging on your phone works, a short list is better.
• Poisoning. Bring the packaging, leaflet or plant part. The poison center’s advice is covered in this site’s poisoning guide.
• A charged phone and a snack for the wait, plus a comfort item for a younger child.
• If you do not speak German. Write down the child’s age, weight if you know it, symptoms and the time they started. Staff will use the information even if the conversation is slow. For finding English-speaking doctors for follow-up, see this site’s guide to English-speaking pediatricians.

If your child needs an ambulance, the question of cost comes up later, not at the door. This site’s guide to 112 call costs explains how it works.

A Note on the Future: Merheim

A Kliniken Köln press release of 13 March 2026 says the aim is to merge the hospitals Merheim, Holweide and the Kinderkrankenhaus Amsterdamer Straße onto one health campus in Merheim in the coming years, backed by a city council decision of June 2023 and a state grant of 250 million euros announced in December 2024. The release does not give a date for moving the children’s hospital. Nothing changes today, but if you are reading this years from now, check where the Kinderkrankenhaus actually is.

Step by Step

1. Save the numbers now.112, 116 117, Riehl 0221 8907-5300, Uniklinik 0221 478-4358, Porz 02203 566-1256.
2. Decide which hospital is closer to your home and write down the way there, including parking or the tram stop.
3. Check the season.Winter and summer on-call hours differ on Wednesdays, Fridays and weekends.
4. Call 112 if life is in danger.Do not drive a child who is struggling to breathe or unresponsive.
5. Otherwise call 116 117 or go to the on-call practice, and use the emergency department for serious cases outside its hours.
6. Take the documents listed above and accept that triage decides the order.
7. Follow up with your Kinderarzt the next working day. This site's guide to finding a Kinderarzt or Hausarzt helps if you do not have one yet.

Compliance Note

This page gives general information about Cologne’s pediatric emergency services as published by the hospitals, KV Nordrhein and the Uniklinik Köln as of November 2026. It is not medical advice and does not replace a doctor. Opening hours, phone numbers and services change. In an emergency, call 112.