Guide
Out of hours doctor in France: who to call at night and at weekends
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
How out-of-hours care is organised in France
Family doctors in France close in the evening and at weekends, and the cover that fills the gap has a name: the permanence des soins ambulatoires, or PDSA. It is a duty system for general practice, not a walk-in clinic network, and the way in is a phone call.
ARS Pays de la Loire, the regional health agency, describes the entry point for its region in one line: "Gratuit, le 116.117 est le numéro unique pour joindre un médecin généraliste de garde", the free single number for reaching an on-call GP (page dated 10 March 2025).
Two things follow that catch new arrivals out. First, which number works depends on where you live, because these arrangements are set region by region. Second, the person who answers is a regulator whose job is to decide what you need, which may be advice, an appointment with an on-call doctor, or an ambulance. You do not choose the level of care; the regulator does.
When to call 116 117
116 117 is the number for medical problems that will not wait until your own doctor reopens but are not emergencies. Think a child with a fever on Saturday night, an ear infection on a public holiday, or a wound that probably needs looking at.
ARS Pays de la Loire sets out what the regulator on the other end can do: "Vous donner un conseil médical, vous rassurer. Vous orienter ... vers une consultation par un médecin libéral, en cabinet ... Assurer votre prise en charge sans délai par les services de l'aide médicale urgente (SAMU) si nécessaire." Medical advice, reassurance, an appointment with a doctor in a surgery, or immediate handover to the SAMU if the call turns out to be serious.
The hours are set department by department, not nationally. The same page covers its five departments, and publishes an actual time window for four of them.
| Department | When 116 117 is answered |
|---|---|
| Loire-Atlantique | Weekdays 8pm to 8am, Saturday from noon, Sundays and public holidays |
| Maine-et-Loire | No window published. The page gives 116 117 as the number for reaching an on-call GP and describes the care locations as running "en semaine et le week-end, en journée ou en soirée", weekdays and weekends, daytime or evening |
| Mayenne | From 8pm, weekends, public holidays and bridge days |
| Sarthe | Weekdays 9am to midnight, weekends and public holidays 8am to midnight |
| Vendée | 24 hours a day, seven days a week |
The Maine-et-Loire row is not an omission on our part. Read on 8 August 2026, that page sets out a time window for four of its five departments and gives none for Maine-et-Loire, so the hours there are something to confirm locally rather than something we can state (verify with ARS Pays de la Loire).
Coverage is regional and you should not assume the number is answered where you live. Checked on 7 August 2026: the ARS Ile-de-France Service d'Accès aux Soins page, dated 16 February 2026, gives 15 as the number for the region and makes no mention of 116 117. That is one region's page, not a statement about the rest of the country. Find your own ARS page and save whichever number it gives (verify with your regional ARS).
Source: ARS Pays de la Loire, page dated 10 March 2025.
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 policyWhen 15 is the number instead
15 is the SAMU, and Americans and Britons tend to read it as the equivalent of 911 or 999, reserved for the worst night of your life. In France it is broader than that.
ARS Ile-de-France states on its Service d'Accès aux Soins page, dated 16 February 2026, that "Le numéro du Service d'Accès aux Soins est le 15, qui n'est pas réservé qu'aux urgences vitales", and describes the service as available round the clock, seven days a week. What happens on the call is set out there too: "Un régulateur vous mettra en contact avec un médecin qui, en fonction de votre état de santé, évaluera votre situation et pourra vous prodiguer des conseils, vous orienter vers une consultation médicale adaptée à votre situation ou déclencher des moyens adaptés."
ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine makes the same point from the other direction in its campaign on going to the emergency department: "L'appel préalable au 15 permet, grâce à la régulation assurée par des médecins libéraux et hospitaliers, de bien orienter le patient par rapport à son besoin de prise en charge" (page dated 12 July 2022).
For anything with a danger to life, the Ministère de l'Intérieur's civic guidance for new residents is unambiguous: "En cas de danger vital (blessure grave, détresse respiratoire, perte de connaissance ou tout autre danger vital) : il faut appeler le SAMU au 15." Do not spend time working out whether the situation qualifies for the out-of-hours line. Call 15 and let the regulator decide.
Sources: ARS Ile-de-France, Service d'Accès aux Soins, ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Ministère de l'Intérieur.
SOS Médecins and doctors who come to you
The other name you will hear is SOS Médecins, an association of doctors that does consultations and home visits outside surgery hours.
The Ministère de l'Intérieur's civic guidance names it for situations that are not life-threatening but will not wait: "Sans danger vital immédiat (en cas de forte fièvre, de douleurs importantes ou de malaise)", and states that "vous pouvez contacter SOS Médecins au 3624 (0,16 €/minute)". The number itself is charged at 0,16 euro per minute, which is unusual in a landscape where 15 and 116 117 are free.
A home visit is genuinely useful with a small child, an elderly parent, or anyone who should not be sitting in a waiting room at 2am. The consultation is billed, and the pages read for this guide do not set out what an out-of-hours home visit is charged at, so ask for the price when you book (verify with the local SOS Médecins association), and ask for the feuille de soins if your carte Vitale cannot be read, because a later claim to Assurance Maladie is much harder without that paper form.
Source: Ministère de l'Intérieur, accès aux soins et numéros d'urgence.
Getting the prescription filled: pharmacie de garde
A prescription at 11pm is useless without a pharmacy that is open. France covers this with a duty rota, and how you reach it is regional.
ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine, page dated 3 August 2026, states the obligation plainly: "En dehors des horaires et des jours habituels d'ouverture, les pharmacies d'officine sont tenues d'assurer un service de garde et d'urgence." It points to the RésoGardes site at 3237.fr or the number 3237. It also flags something you would not guess: in several named cities, including Angoulême, La Rochelle, Poitiers and Niort, you must contact the police station before turning up at the on-duty pharmacy at night.
The pattern repeats elsewhere with local differences.
- Ile-de-France (ARS page dated 16 June 2026): the official MonPharmacien service, on the web and as an app, finds a pharmacy open now. In Paris the on-duty pharmacies are open at night and can be reached directly. In the other departments of the region the night pharmacy's details are generally given out by the police station. Take identity, the day's prescription, your carte Vitale and your complementary insurance certificate if you have one.
- Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (ARS page dated 13 May 2026): the rota runs from 8pm, at weekends and on public holidays, with 3237 covering some departments and a separate number covering others.
Find your department's route now and put it in your phone. Working it out while standing outside a locked pharmacy with a sick child is the wrong time to learn that your area routes through the commissariat.
Sources: ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Pharmacies de garde, ARS Ile-de-France, MonPharmacien and ARS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Using the system before your public cover starts
None of this depends on being registered. What changes is who pays and when.
The service-public.gouv.fr page on affiliation to the Protection universelle maladie, verified 13 May 2026, states that a person without employment must wait three months in France before their rights open, with the application going to the CPAM, the MSA or the CSSM depending on the situation. The same page carries a notice that a 2025 law introduces a financial participation for people who reside in France stably, carry on no professional activity and are not liable for French social contributions, and that the décret setting the amount is still awaited. No amount is published, so do not budget against one.
Until your rights open you are paying out-of-hours consultations yourself. Keep the itemised bill and the feuille de soins from every visit, because those are the documents a claim will ask for. GOV.UK's France guidance, last updated 25 July 2022, notes that state healthcare in France is not free and that patients may pay upfront with CPAM refunding part of the cost later.
This is the window private medical cover is built for. A policy taken for a visa or for a first year in France is designed to handle medical treatment while public registration is being worked through, and what it actually pays is whatever the policy wording says. Read the benefit schedule specifically for out-of-hours and home-visit consultations, since some plans treat those differently from a routine surgery appointment, and check whether claims are settled directly or reimbursed to you after payment. No policy replaces the emergency numbers: for a danger to life the answer is 15, whoever is insuring you.
Sources: service-public.gouv.fr, protection universelle maladie and GOV.UK, Healthcare in France.