Mas Italy approaches the crucial deadline of 2026 for the reorganization of local healthcarea key piece of the puzzle continues to be missing in most of the country. Let’s talk about 116117, the single European number for non-urgent carea service that remains largely unfinished today and which in a large part of the country continues to not respond or has never been activated. Indeed, despite almost twenty years having passed since its birth at a European level, and despite the goal of making it operational everywhere by 2026, the reality is that today it depends only on the luck of residing in the “right” region. The result is a paradox: a number created to make life easier for citizens And emptying the emergency rooms remainsfor millions of people, a bureaucratic ghost.
Healthcare, the non-urgent care number does not answer: the long wait for 116117
The Nea, Harmonized European Number, 116117is not a simple call center, but is designed to be the gateway to healthcare when there is no danger to life. It is used to manage non-serious health needs: a high fever that doesn’t go down, severe back pain on the weekend or the need for medication when your doctor is away. The basic idea is clearly separate the emergency managed by 112 or 118from “low intensity” health needs.
What is it for
The idea, essentially, is to create a filter: instead of rushing to the hospital, the citizen calls 116117here an operator or a doctor evaluates the case and decides whether to provide telephone advice, send the Continuity of Care doctor, the old medical guard, or direct the user to the nearest clinic. In nations like Germany or France, this system is now part of everyday life: citizens know that for a health concern, 116117 is called, leaving the hospital wards free for those who are risking their lives. The problem is that in Italy, it doesn’t work as it should.
From Lombardy which has used it for years to Calabria where it does not exist: the right to receive assistance for minor health problems today depends on the area code. (Getty Images)
Leopard patchy Italy: who responds and who doesn’t to 116117
The real problem is that Italy travels at opposite speeds. In regions like Lombardy, the service has been a solid reality since 2014 and effectively handles millions of calls. Positive responses also come from Piedmont, Tuscany and the autonomous province of Trento. In the rest of Italy, however, confusion reigns. Some regions, such as Lazio or Venetohave activated the number only in some areas or for certain services. In other large regions of the South and Center, like Calabria, Sicily, Puglia or Emilia-Romagna, 116117 is still “under construction” or completely absent. This means that, while in one part of the country you receive immediate telephone assistance, in the other you are still forced to look for local telephone numbers that are often unobtainable or to clog emergency room waiting rooms.
Because this delay hurts everyone
The inefficiency of 116117 is not just a service that is of no use to the caller, but a damage to the entire system. It is estimated, in fact, that approximately 30% of visits to Italian emergency rooms concern non-urgent cases, the so-called “white codes”. They are people who shouldn’t be there, but who go because they don’t know where else to turn. The unique number is cited in all the most important documents of our healthcare, it is considered critical infrastructure to operate the new community houses and the territorial operations centers, the new reference points for neighborhood medicine. Without 116117 acting as “director”, these structures risk remaining empty boxes.
A reform waiting to become reality
But why doesn’t the number 116117 work? There is no lack of laws, there is no lack of money from Europe and there is no lack of technical models either. So what? Unfortunately, what is missing is uniform implementation across the country. The history of 116117, in fact, reflects unfortunately the limits of our regionalized healthcare: a service that should be an equal right for all citizens has turned into a labyrinth of local experiments.
A reform that remains halfway
Despite the laws, the funds allocated and the successful models that already exist, the road still appears to be uphill. Regional fragmentation has meant that each administration proceeded with different times and organizational models. The result is an incomplete infrastructure: a great technical idea that struggles to become a universal service. AND, the goal of achieving total coverage by 2026, it is now a race against time.
The number 116117 for non-urgent care, the challenge for more effective healthcare
For the ordinary citizen, however, clarity is all that matters: know that there is only one numbereasy to remember and always active, capable of giving a medical response without forcing him to wait hours in hospital. As long as citizens continue to feel lost among closed clinics and unresponsive switchboards until that number rings the same way from Aosta to PalermoUnfortunately, the excellent idea of 116117 will remain yet another wasted opportunity to truly take care of our healthcare.
