Healthcare & Appointments
How long do you wait for a specialist appointment in Germany?
Estimated wait
10 days – 42 days
Typically ~33 days
Based on published sources
Timeline guide
- Faster cases~25 days
- Average cases~33 days
- Slower casesUp to 42 days
Waits vary enormously by specialty and region — dermatology and psychiatry are far worse than the average, rural areas worse than cities. The 4-week 116117 guarantee only applies with a referral code and without free choice of doctor.
Publicly insured (GKV) patients wait on average about 5–6 weeks (36–42 days) for a routine, self-booked specialist appointment, according to official billing-committee data reported in 2024. The spread is wide: the GKV umbrella association's 2025 survey found half of patients get an appointment within 10 days, while a quarter wait longer than a month.
More details
There is a separate legal route: with a referral carrying a Vermittlungscode, the 116117 appointment service must find you a specialist appointment within 4 weeks — a statutory service promise (§ 75 SGB V), met in 97% of arranged cases in 2024. That guarantee is not the everyday self-booked experience, and you cannot choose the doctor.
How the process works
- 1Call practices directly — average self-booked wait ~5–6 weeks
- 2Half of patients get one within 10 days; a quarter wait over a month
- 3Typical overall wait (~1 month) ↑ the time on this page
- 4With a referral code: 116117 must find one within 4 weeks (no doctor choice)
Sources
Last updated: 10 Jul 2026
Information is for general knowledge only.