TRENTO. The new “unique number” 116117 was presented today and will be used to contact the medical guard and book ambulances for scheduled transport.
From tomorrow evening at 8 pm citizens who require non-urgent medical care can call the continuity of care service using a single telephone number for the whole province: the number 116117. In Italy today the new European number is operative only in Lombardy and in the province of Alessandria.
Today at the Apss headquarters, the new service was presented by the councilor for health, social policies, disability and family Stefania Segnana together with the general manager of Apss Pier Paolo Benetollo, the director of the primary care area Simona Sforzin, the director of the ‘Ettore Turra technologies area and the managers of the new integrated operational center 116117 Giorgio Folgheraiter, Roberta Levato and Andrea Ventura.
The general manager of Apss Pier Paolo Benetollo wanted to present the new service with an applause to the staff: “I thank the staff of the Trentino Emergenza operational unit, to which the new integrated operational center 116117 refers, that of primary care and the technologies as well as doctors of continuity of care for the considerable work carried out in recent months in which they have had to face not only the creation of a new service but also the extraordinary activities related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our orientation was defined in the Strategic Development Program presented last month – continued Benetollo – where, with respect to the future organization of services, we wanted to introduce an idea of a polycentric territory and hospital to ensure a balance between proximity of care and specialization, with processes of unification of the modalities of assistance in order to guarantee equity of access to services for all citizens. The establishment of the new Integrated Operations Center is also going in this direction, which from tomorrow citizens will have as a single gateway to non-urgent health services with a single, uniform and integrated guarantee of taking charge ”.
The word was then passed to Andrea Ventura and Roberta Levato who illustrated the new service: “The telephone number 116117 – said Andrea Ventura, doctor in charge of the Integrated Operations Center 116117 – is the single European number for access to non-medical urgent and other Trentino health services. It will be used to access the continuity assistance service and therefore be put in contact with the nearest medical guard, to receive information on the tourist medical guard, the pharmacies on duty and other information on the health services that will be progressively implemented; in addition, the Integrated Operations Center will manage non-urgent medical transport, from booking the trip to coordinating the vehicles.
A technical operator will answer the citizen’s call which, after having collected general information and localization, will analyze the user’s request to direct him to the most appropriate service. For requests for contact with the emergency medical service, the Central operator, with a few targeted and standardized questions, will evaluate whether the request is pertinent or deserves the transfer to the Emergency-Urgency Central of Trentino Emergenza 118. For pertinent requests, if the continuity of care doctor is free, the user is put in direct contact; if the doctor is engaged in an outpatient or home visit, the patient will enter a list and will be contacted by the professional as soon as he is available.
The control panel is fully computerized with software which allows the recording and traceability of communications as well as a connection via mobile phone and tablet for the management of the patient by the doctor on call. If necessary, a telephone interpreting service will also be available in 14 languages and a service for access by the hearing impaired will soon be activated. Calls can be made from landlines or mobile phones, they are free and 116117 will be active 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In the Primiero area, which belongs to the Veneto Region as a telephone district and has the prefix 0439, it was necessary to activate the toll-free number 800 016 017 which allowed, until the activation of 116117 in Veneto, the call from the municipalities of Primiero-San Martino di Castrozza, Canal San Bovo, Imer, Mezzano, Sagron Mis ».
In this first phase – highlighted Roberta Levato head of the Trentino Emergenza personnel – 19 operators will work in the Central on three daily shifts as well as a coordinator and an administrative but the number of operators may be increased based on the expansion of the services provided. regime will also include information on all Trentino health services. I would like to remind citizens – continued Roberta Levato – that it is important to call the number 116117 even if they decide to go to the clinic independently, this will allow the continuity of care doctor to have a “pre-admission” card with the patient data and thus optimize expectations ».
«A new center that allows, through a single access point, to take care of citizens who need non-urgent health care. The effort of the Healthcare Company, supported by the Department of Health of the Autonomous Province of Trento, – said Councilor Stefania Segnana, underlining the importance of this new service – goes in the direction of making it less complicated and more usable for citizens have access to health services and this, in addition to a specific European legislative dictate, has been the commitment made since our establishment. With this new issue we have concentrated in a single access door requests for non-urgent medical care and information on tourist medical services, information on pharmacies on duty as well as ambulance reservations for scheduled transport. I hope that this service can guarantee support for medical guards and uniformity and ease in accessing non-urgent health services for all Trentino citizens ».
NEW UNIQUE NUMBER 116117
It operates 24/7.
The call is free, from landline or mobile.
Accessible to foreign citizens thanks to an interpreting service in 14 languages.
Continuity of assistance (medical guard)
During the opening hours of the service (every night from 20 to 8; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 20 to 8; days before holidays from 10 to 20) 116117 manages all requests for the continuity of assistance service. The calls will be processed by adequately trained technical operators who, with the support of technological applications and decision-making algorithms, will evaluate the user’s request by forwarding the most urgent cases to the emergency-urgency operations center of Trentino Emergenza and to the doctor of the continuity of assistance service. relevant requests.
Health care for holidaymakers (Tourist medical service)
For tourists on holiday in Trentino, as well as for access to the continuity assistance service, 116117 will be the reference for non-urgent daytime healthcare. Once the place of origin of the request has been identified, the staff of the Integrated Operations Center will in fact be able to provide the user with the necessary information (location, contact details, opening hours and booking methods) to access the health care service for holidaymakers (Tourist medical guard) .
Scheduled medical transport
116117 is the number that will replace the current toll-free number for booking scheduled ambulance transport. The staff of the Integrated Operations Center will assess the relevance of the request and will manage the organization of scheduled medical transport for those entitled to it. For anything not envisaged by the LEA, 116117 will provide the user with the information necessary to facilitate the autonomous organization of transport. The service will be active from Monday to Friday, excluding holidays, from 8 am to 3 pm.
Health information
In the initial phase, through the 116117 service, it will be possible to obtain information on how to access the general practitioner and pediatrician of free choice (contact details and hours of the clinic) and pharmacies on duty. Furthermore, for non-residents, 116117 will be the number to contact to receive information on places and times for health care for holidaymakers (tourist medical service).
When fully operational, the service will be implemented by extending the information offer to socio-health integration (assistance for the non self-sufficient, Silver Space, concessions, etc.), health registry (registration with the NHS, electronic health record, access to services, etc.), family counseling, complaints (how to access the URP) and much more.