Your Child Is Sick at Night or on a Weekend: Munich's Kindernotdienst

The Official Rule

One phone number, 116117, quietly does two unrelated jobs, and mixing them up at 2am with a sick child wastes exactly the time you don’t have.

The Terminservicestelle (appointment service) books routine specialist appointments during business hours, using a referral code from your GP or pediatrician. That’s a scheduling tool, not an emergency line, and it isn’t what you need when your toddler spikes a fever on a Friday night.

The ärztlicher Bereitschaftsdienst (on-call medical service) is the one that actually matters after hours. Per the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Bayerns (KVB), Bavaria’s on-call service runs Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 6pm to 8am the next morning, Wednesday and Friday from 1pm to 8am, and continuously through weekends and public holidays, from 6pm the evening before through 8am the following workday. Calling 116117 during these windows connects you to trained staff who assess your situation (a structured process called SmED) and direct you to the right level of care, rather than assuming every after-hours symptom needs an ambulance.

Munich layers a dedicated pediatric on-call system on top of the general Bereitschaftsdienst. Three hospitals share pediatric emergency and on-call duty across the city: München Klinik Schwabing’s Kinderklinik at Kölner Platz 1, open around the clock, München Klinik Harlaching’s Kinderklinik at Sanatoriumsplatz 2, which also runs a Saturday/Sunday/holiday on-call practice for children from 9am to 8pm on top of its emergency department, and Klinikum Dritter Orden at Menzinger Straße 44, also staffed 365 days a year around the clock and handling roughly 39,000 children annually.

1. 1 München Klinik Schwabing, Kinderklinik Notfallzentrum, Kölner Platz 1, 80804 München. Open 24 hours, 365 days a year.
2. 2 München Klinik Harlaching, Kinderklinik, Sanatoriumsplatz 2, 81545 München. Emergency department around the clock, plus a Saturday/Sunday/holiday pediatric on-call practice from 9am to 8pm.
3. 3 Klinikum Dritter Orden, Notaufnahme Kinder, Menzinger Straße 44, 80638 München. Open 24 hours, 365 days a year, staffed by pediatricians, pediatric surgeons, anesthesiologists, and pediatric nurses.

One specific threshold is worth memorizing regardless of what time it is. 116117.de’s own guidance is explicit that a baby under 3 months old running a fever of 38 degrees Celsius or higher should be seen in an emergency room, since a fever at that age can signal a serious infection that an older child’s immune system would handle without drama. Outside that specific combination, fever in an otherwise alert child is usually described as running a harmless course, and calling 116117 to talk through symptoms is a reasonable first move before driving anywhere.

What Real People Say

Newcomer-facing guidance consistently frames the choice the same way local pediatric practices do: Munich’s Kinderklinik network points out that most child emergency services organized through the KV Bayern system are concentrated in these hospital-based practices rather than spread across dozens of individual pediatric offices, so knowing the three names in advance saves time compared to searching mid-crisis.

Families who’d rather not travel with a sick child at all mention a private alternative: Medlanes sends a pediatrician to your home regardless of the hour, describing the visit as quick and free of charge for privately insured patients specifically, a detail worth confirming with your own insurer since coverage for statutory (GKV) patients works differently.

Step by Step

1. Decide if it's genuinely life-threateningIf yes, call 112 immediately and skip everything below.
2. If it's urgent but not life-threatening, call 116117Say clearly that it's a child, and let the trained staff assess the situation and direct you.
3. For a baby under 3 months with a fever of 38°C or higher, go straight to an emergency roomDon't wait for a phone assessment in this specific case.
4. If you're directed to a pediatric on-call practice or emergency department, go to the one you're told is staffedMunich's three children's hospitals rotate coverage, so confirm rather than assuming the nearest one is open for on-call cases.
5. Bring the basicsYour child's eGK insurance card, the yellow U-Heft if you have it, and a list of any current medications.

Compliance Note

This page explains the general structure of Munich’s pediatric emergency and on-call services, but exact hours, staffing, and locations can change. For a genuine emergency, always call 112 rather than relying on information from this page, and confirm current details directly with 116117 or the hospital in question.