Guide
Emergency numbers in the Netherlands: which number, for what, verified
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
The numbers, from the police's own contact page
Verified against politie.nl's official contact page, read 23 August 2026:
| Number | For | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 112 | Emergencies — police, ambulance, fire | Free of charge |
| 0900-8844 | Non-emergency police: questions, appointments, non-urgent reports | 2 cents/min plus your phone company's access charge |
| 0800-7000 | Report crime anonymously | Free of charge |
The police's own shorthand is the cleanest rule: "Bij spoed: 112. Geen spoed: 0900-8844" — emergency 112, no emergency 0900-8844. If you are witnessing a crime happening now, that is 112; a crime that already happened and can wait for an appointment is 0900-8844.
112 works from any phone, and the same number works across every EU country — one fact worth teaching children once and keeping.
Source: Politie.nl, contact (official English page), read 23 August 2026.
Sick outside office hours: the huisartsenpost, not the emergency room
The medical branch of "who do I call" is where newcomers default to American or British instincts, and the Dutch system is built differently. For urgent-but-not-life-threatening illness outside your GP's hours, the right door is the huisartsenpost — the out-of-hours GP post your own huisarts practice will direct you to. It is staffed by GPs, it handles the "this cannot wait until Monday" tier, and — a detail worth money — care at the huisartsenpost is exempt from the eigen risico, like all GP care.
Going straight to a hospital instead is the expensive instinct: specialist care generally needs a referral, and without one you may be paying yourself or waiting to be seen until you have it. The referral rule stands down exactly where it should — no referral is needed for urgent or emergency specialist care, an accident or sudden serious illness.
So the triage that fits the system: life-threatening → 112. Cannot wait, not life-threatening, outside hours → huisartsenpost via your GP's number. Can wait → your own huisarts tomorrow. This is also the strongest practical argument for registering with a huisarts in week one rather than when you first get ill.
Source: Rijksoverheid, when do I need a referral letter, read 20 August 2026.
60-second check
Not sure the policy you have meets your destination's written rule? Run it through the policy check now, before you build the rest of the file around it.
Check my policyWhat this costs you, insured or not
The pieces newcomers can price in advance. Calling 112 is free. GP care — your huisarts and the huisartsenpost — never draws down the €385 eigen risico. Hospital care that follows a genuine emergency is covered by the Dutch basic policy, with the eigen risico applying to what qualifies.
The situation that produces ugly bills is the uninsured gap: arrive, delay the basic policy past the four-month retroactivity window, and any emergency inside the gap is billed to you — rijksoverheid is explicit that the costs of care in an uninsured period are your own. An emergency is precisely the event you cannot schedule around your paperwork, which is why we keep pointing at that window from every Dutch page on this site.
If you are newly arrived and between systems — IND decision pending, no Dutch policy possible yet — the cover you hold for that stretch should be real treatment cover valid in the Netherlands. The 112 operator will send the ambulance either way; the invoice afterwards is the part your paperwork decides.
Source: Rijksoverheid, what happens if I am not insured, read 20 August 2026.