Emergency Urgency

Single EU emergency number 112

112 (Single EU emergency number 112) is a service that allows you to ask for help from Emergency Units, Police officers, "Carabinieri" and firefighters, just by typing the following digits in one number: 1 1 2 (one, one, two).

The number is free from landline and mobile phones. You can also avail yourself of multilingual translation and support for hearing and visually impaired people.

You can also ask for help through the app “Where Are U” (download here) or the "eCall" devices installed in recently registered vehicles. Regardless of the modality in which you ask for help, you will be geo-localized precisely within a few seconds.

Emergency Unit

The Emergency Unit deals with healthcare emergencies and urgencies.

If Emergency professionals think that the treatments you need are not urgent, you will receive them anyway, but you will have to wait for a longer time and pay a fee ("ticket"). The Emergency Unit doesn't follow the rule "first come first served".

For chronical or non-urgent problems, you must go to your Family Doctor/Paediatrician or Continuity of Care Service (out-of-hours doctors).

You can access Emergency Units by yourself or by ambulance, by calling 112. If you come by ambulance, it doesn't mean that you have a priority access to medical examinations.

Inside the Emergency Unit, there is an area called Triage, where nurses evaluate your access priority based on your symptoms and health condition.

You priority is given a code from 1 to 5:

1.     EMERGENCY    ► IMMEDIATE CARE

2.     URGENCY          ► CANNOT BE POSTPONED

3.     URGENCY          ► CAN BE POSTPONED

4.     URGENCY          ► MINOR URGENGY

5.     LACK OF URGENCY

There are programmes for patients with special needs (e.g. PINK CODE for victims of violence) or specific organizational modalities that could send you to a clinic specialized in urgencies (Fast Track) or a specifically trained nurse (See & Treat)

If your priority code corresponds to 4 or 5, you have to pay for the service received. The following categories are exempt from paying non-urgent Emergency services:

• people aged less than 14 years,
• people exonerated for health or income reasons,
• people who had a trauma requiring immobilization or suture, severe poisoning, special programmes.

Pink Code

Pink Code is a free programme to access Emergency Units available in cases of violence, especially on women, minors and victims of hate crimes.

The staff of Emergency Units, hospitals, clinics and family counselling services can activate this service.

The Pink Code network allows you to receive immediate care, protection and treatment, and channels you to specific programmes in collaboration with other institutions, such as Women's crisis centres.