Emergency services

194 - Emergency medical help

By calling number 194, you can request emergency medical help if a life is in immediate danger, or someone’s health is severely impaired

You can request emergency medical help for persons who suddenly feel ill or are injured at any time during the day or night by calling 194 via a landline or a mobile telecommunications network.

You can also request emergency medical help by calling the uniform European emergency phone number 112. The operator answering calls to that number will put you through to the emergency medical help line. 

You can request emergency medical help if a life is in immediate danger or someone’s health is severely impaired, for example:
  • Sudden difficulties breathing
  • Choking on a foreign body
  • Cardiac and respiratory arrest
  • Loss of consciousness
  • Sudden chest pain
  • Sudden tachycardia, bradycardia or irregular heartbeat
  • Convulsions
  • Slurred speech, weakness or a paralysed body part, lopsided face
  • Injuries caused by traffic accidents and other sudden injuries (falls from heights/animal bites/stings/gunshot wounds...)
  • Unusual bleeding of any of the body orifices
  • Burns
  • Electric shocks or lightning strikes
  • Hypothermia, heatstroke
  • Drowning
  • Poisoning with medicine/narcotics/chemicals
  • Severe allergic reaction
  • Sudden and unusual pain (severe headache, severe chest/stomach/back pain)
  • Sudden changes in a person’s behaviour, which endanger them or their surroundings (suicide/murder attempts...).
Talking to an emergency medical dispatcher 
Here are a few tips on how to talk to an emergency medical dispatcher:
  • When talking to an emergency medical dispatcher, speak calmly and clearly
  • Describe in detail the location of the person in need of help and the reason for which you are calling 
  • When providing information on the location of the person in need of help, use significant landmarks in your vicinity—large crossroads, bridges, famous buildings, etc.
  • State your name and surname, address and telephone number—the dispatcher might need this to call you back
  • Do not hang up unless you are instructed to do so  
  • The emergency medical dispatcher will have to know what the condition of the person in need of help is and whether any help has already been provided to them 
  • The emergency medical dispatcher will give you instructions on what to do until an emergency medical help team arrives—closely follow the dispatcher’s instructions.
If you don't understand something, ask them to repeat it and stay with the person in need of help until the arrival of an emergency medical help team.
What to do until the arrival of an emergency medical help team
Here are a few tips on what to do until the arrival of an emergency medical help team:
  • Try to keep yourself and the person in need of help calm, keep them warm and awake
  • Do not give the person in need of help anything to eat or drink
  • Do not move the person in need of help if they were involved in a traffic accident, fell from a height, or lost consciousness if they are not in any immediate danger (fire, explosion, drowning, etc.).
  • Start giving them first aid if you can.