Continuità assistenziale (ex guardia medica)

116117 is the harmonised European number for non-urgent medical care. In Lombardy the centre is run by AREU, the regional emergency agency: it answers 24 hours a day every day, it is free, it is dialled without an area code from landlines and mobiles, and no registration is needed. Lombardy was the first Italian region to extend it to its whole territory, from 20 July 2020.

It is for problems that cannot wait until your doctor's surgery reopens but are not life-threatening. In an emergency, or a life-threatening situation, the ASST says to call 112; if an urgent rescue request reaches 116117, the call is transferred straight to the emergency service. At 116117 a voice menu offers three options:

The out-of-hours service covers the hours when family doctors and paediatricians are not seeing patients: Monday to Friday from 19.00 to 8.00 the next morning, and on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays 24 hours a day. For weekdays before a public holiday the ASST's main page says the service starts at 14.00, while its page for holidaymakers speaks of such days being covered 24 hours a day: the number to call is the same anyway, and key 1 plays a message saying whether the service is active.

You should not go straight to the clinics: the ASST asks you always to phone first, because it is the 116117 operator who directs you to the right place and care pathway. The doctor can answer by phone or video call, or arrange a visit at a clinic or at home.

The out-of-hours doctor gives advice by phone, including by video call, sees patients at a clinic or at home and prescribes medicines for treatment that cannot be postponed or to cover a course of treatment. For shift workers he or she issues sick notes, limited to the days when the service is open. For people who do not speak Italian the ASST provides a real-time telephone interpreting service.

According to the ASST, the following are not part of the service:

In the Valle Brembana, Valle Imagna and Villa d'Almè district the ASST adds to the out-of-hours service clinics dedicated to holidaymakers and to people temporarily without a family doctor. They are in the Community Houses of Zogno, Villa d'Almè and Sant'Omobono Terme and open Monday to Friday from 16.00 to 20.00. Booking is compulsory and is made by phone, on 0345 545729, Monday to Friday from 8.30 to 13.00; the ASST updated the page on 18 September 2026.

In Zogno the ASST site is in piazza Belotti, in the town centre, on the SS470 road of Val Brembana. People without an assigned family doctor who need help outside out-of-hours service times should go, the ASST says, to the Temporary Medical Clinics (Ambulatori medici temporanei) of their own ASST.

On Saturday afternoons, when family paediatricians are not seeing patients, the ASST runs a free paediatric clinic from 14.00 to 19.00 for children and young people aged 0 to 14 who are resident, domiciled or staying temporarily in its area. Access is only after a triage phone call, on Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00, to one of the three sites; in August hours are reduced to 17.00, with calls from 14.00 to 16.45. Outside these times call 116117.

The ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Valle Brembana is the one in San Giovanni Bianco: 75 beds, with an emergency department, radiology, a laboratory and internal medicine, general surgery and orthopaedics wards. For an emergency the number is still 112, which sends the medical rescue service.

For intoxication or poisoning the ASST gives 112 for callers from Bergamo and its province; callers from outside the province can ring the poison centre's free number, 800 883300.