Sweden does not really have “a doctor you call”. It has a routing layer, staffed by nurses, open at every hour of every day — and a three-digit number that many visitors’ phones cannot dial. Both halves of that sentence matter.
When you need this
It is 21:00, a child has a fever, and every health centre you can find is closed. You are ill in a small town on a Sunday, hours from a hospital, and cannot tell how worried to be. You dialled 1177 from your own phone and nothing happened. Or you are on 1177.se trying to book an appointment and the site is asking for a Swedish BankID you will never have.
First, is this a 112 call?
Answer this before anything else on this page.
Call 112 if the matter is very urgent, or if your or someone else’s life is in danger. SOS Alarm, which runs the number, sets the threshold as danger to life, property or the environment. 1177’s own recorded greeting says the same thing in English before you reach a nurse: if you are calling about a serious or life-threatening condition, hang up and call 112.
Two details worth knowing before you need them. 112 works in Sweden with no SIM card in the phone at all. And its operators speak Swedish or English, with interpreters available in 200 languages.
If you are weighing up which number to call, that hesitation is itself the answer. Call 112.
| Situation | Number |
|---|---|
| Danger to life; a serious accident; you would call an ambulance for this at home | 112 |
| Ill or injured and unsure how serious it is, or unsure where to go | 1177 |
| Something not ongoing and not acute for the police — theft, a lost passport | 114 14 (from a foreign phone, +46 77 114 14 00) |
| Information during a major accident or crisis | 113 13 |
Note that 112 in another EU country reaches that country’s emergency centre, not Sweden’s. Relevant on the way home.
The number depends on your phone, not on where you are standing
This is the fact the rest of the internet leaves out.
1177’s own instruction, in Swedish, is to call +46 771 11 77 00 for healthcare advice when you are abroad or when your phone has a foreign number. Its English pages put it more bluntly still: from outside Sweden, or without a Swedish SIM card, dial that number. Krisinformation.se, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency’s public channel, repeats it for anyone calling from a mobile registered outside Sweden. SOS Alarm prints the same digits.
So: Swedish phone, dial 1177. Foreign phone, foreign SIM, or calling from outside Sweden, dial +46 771 11 77 00.
You will see that number written three different ways by three official sources — +46 771-11 77 00, 0046 771-11 77 00, +46 771 1177 00. They are the same digits with different spacing. Dial 0046 771 11 77 00 and ignore the gaps.
Warning: If you dial the short number from a foreign-registered phone and nothing happens, the natural conclusion is that Sweden’s advice line is not for you — and the usual next move is to drive to an emergency department, which is the one place 1177 explicitly tells you not to go with a minor problem. Save the long number to your contacts before you travel.
The Swedish police number behaves identically, which is a useful tell that this is a general pattern and not a 1177 quirk: 114 14 is dialled without an area code inside Sweden, and +46 77 114 14 00 from abroad.
What happens when the line picks up
A recorded menu answers first, not a person.
- The English option. The national recording includes “For information in English please press 5”. Menus are set regionally, so the numbers around it vary — Västra Götaland’s, for example, also offers Arabic and Somali interpreters and a separate weekday option for administrative questions.
- The personnummer prompt. You will be asked to key in the Swedish personal identity number of the person the call concerns, or to identify yourself with BankID or Freja eID plus. You may also simply wait in the queue without entering anything. 1177 states this outright, and it is the visitor’s route through. Hanging up here is the most common and most needless failure.
- The nurse. A registered nurse assesses how urgent your problem is, advises on what you can do yourself, and directs you to the right reception.
1177 asks you to find somewhere quiet before you call, to have your medicine list to hand, and — if you are calling on someone else’s behalf — to have that person with you. Say early that you are a visitor in Sweden temporarily with no personnummer; it saves the conversation stalling on a number you do not have.
One thing to know rather than to worry about: all calls are recorded and handled under healthcare confidentiality, and advice calls are written into a medical record, which 1177 attributes to Sweden’s patient data act.
Will they speak English?
Usually, and there is an English option on the recorded menu. But the honest answer is narrower than most English-language pages give you.
1177’s own English page says only that “in some regions, you can get help in English or other languages”. English is a regional service, not a national promise. In practice it is widely available and Stockholm publishes English on 1177 around the clock. Other languages are patchier and organized differently region by region: Stockholm runs separate direct numbers for Arabic, Somali, Persian, Russian and Tigrinya, most on weekday daytime hours; Västra Götaland routes Arabic, Somali and Persian through an interpreter on the ordinary line.
If English fails you and the situation is urgent, 112’s operators speak English and can bring in an interpreter. And once you are actually in care, interpreting is free to the patient — say so when you book.
Deaf, hard-of-hearing and speech-impaired callers reach 1177 through a sign-language interpreter who places the call, with Teletal available to help with difficult words and take notes.
What the nurse can do, and the three things they cannot
The remit is deliberately narrow: assess, advise, route. Expect a destination, not a diagnosis.
| The nurse will | The nurse will not |
|---|---|
| Assess how urgent your problem is | Diagnose you over the phone |
| Tell you what you can do yourself | Renew a prescription or change your medicines |
| Send you to the right reception, and say when | See whether a referral exists for you |
| In some regions, book you an out-of-hours slot | Book, rebook or cancel appointments in the wider system |
Those refusals are the regions’ own wording, not our summary. The one booking that does happen in some regions is a slot at the jourcentral — the out-of-hours clinic — when the need cannot wait until the health centre opens.
Where you end up depends on the clock. Weekday daytime is almost always a vårdcentral (health centre). Evenings and weekends it is the region’s out-of-hours reception, called jourmottagning, jourcentral or närakut depending on where you are. The hospital akutmottagning — the emergency department, signed AKUTEN — is for serious injury and sudden severe illness, and 1177’s instruction is unambiguous: do not go there with minor problems. Patients are seen by severity, not arrival order.
Ask the nurse to spell the clinic name and give you the street address. Swedish clinic names do not survive being heard once.
1177.se is two services, and you can only use one
The website is genuinely useful — and half of it is closed to you.
| What you want to do | Works as a visitor? |
|---|---|
| Read the illness and health pages | Yes, no login |
| Find a clinic’s address, phone number and hours | Yes, no login |
| Use the 1177 app for the same content | Yes, no login |
| Book, rebook or cancel an appointment | No |
| Message a clinic securely | No |
| Renew a prescription, read your record | No |
Logging in to 1177.se requires a Swedish personal identity number plus a Swedish e-identification — BankID or Freja+. 1177 states plainly that you cannot log in with a foreign e-identification, and that a reservnummer or samordningsnummer — the temporary numbers a visitor might be given in care — will not open it either.
There is no visitor route in. Do not spend an evening looking for one. Use the phone.
Why the nurse may not know your street
There is no single national 1177 switchboard. Each of Sweden’s 21 regions holds provider responsibility for its own advice line and staffs it itself; 19 of the 21 share a common advice-support platform with an integrated contact centre.
And here is the part that matters if you dialled the international number: according to Inera, the regions’ jointly owned e-health company, calls from abroad land in a national queue and are distributed across the connected regions’ advice services — the same mechanism used to redirect calls during a crisis. So the nurse who picks up is competent, but not necessarily anywhere near you. Say where you are, by town and region, early in the call.
This regional structure explains most of the variation people notice: which languages are offered, what the keypad menu looks like, whether the nurse can book you anything, and how long you wait. Evenings, weekends and public holidays are the peaks — precisely when the health centres are shut.
The line itself never closes. Around the clock, every day of the year, including every public holiday, while the rest of the system runs on weekday hours. July thins staffing across the whole system, so plan on a slower experience than in June.
Practical information
| Item | What it costs |
|---|---|
| The advice itself, on 1177 | Free — no charge for using the line |
| The call, from a Swedish phone | Your operator’s ordinary call rate |
| The call, from abroad or a foreign SIM | 1177 says the cost is the same as an ordinary call whether you dial from Sweden or another country; your own operator’s international and roaming terms decide what that means for you |
| Reading 1177.se and using the care-finder | Free, no login, no personal identity number |
| What 1177 routes you to | A regional patient fee, plus whatever your entitlement category means for you |
| Interpreting during care | Free to the patient |
| 112 | Sweden’s emergency number; works with no SIM card in the phone |
We publish no kronor figure on this page, deliberately. Patient fees are set by 21 separate regions, revised annually, and you pay the fee of the region where you are treated. Check SKR’s per-region table or your region’s page on 1177.se rather than trusting a number you read in English. What you are entitled to, and what a card does about it, is covered in getting sick in Sweden as a visitor and what EHIC and GHIC actually cover here.
Two numbers to save before you fly: 112 and +46 771 11 77 00. Almost nobody has the second one.
FAQ
Can I call 1177 from a foreign phone in Sweden?
Use the international number. 1177’s instruction is to dial +46 771 11 77 00 when you are abroad or when your phone has a foreign number; its English pages phrase it as “no Swedish SIM card”. Krisinformation.se says the same for any mobile registered outside Sweden. Save it to your contacts before you travel — you will not want to look it up while ill.
Do they speak English on 1177?
Usually, and the recorded menu includes “For information in English please press 5”. But 1177 promises only that English is available in some regions, so it is usual rather than guaranteed. Stockholm publishes English on 1177 around the clock. If English fails you and the situation is urgent, 112’s operators speak English and can add an interpreter.
Should I call 1177 or 112?
112 for danger to life — severe breathing trouble, unconsciousness, serious accidents, anything you would call an ambulance for at home. 1177 for everything else, including “I don’t know how serious this is”. If you reach 1177 and it turns out to be serious, its own recording tells you to hang up and dial 112. When genuinely unsure, call 112.
Do I need a Swedish personal number to call 1177?
No. The keypad asks you to enter the personnummer of the person the call concerns, or to identify yourself with BankID or Freja eID plus, but 1177 states you may also choose to wait in the queue without entering anything. Say early in the call that you are a visitor without a personnummer, so the conversation does not stall on it.
Can I book a doctor’s appointment on 1177.se?
Not as a visitor. Booking, rebooking, messaging a clinic, renewing prescriptions and reading your record all sit behind a login that requires a Swedish personal identity number plus BankID or Freja+. A foreign e-identification will not work, and neither will a reservnummer. Reading the site and using the care-finder need no login at all.
What can the nurse on 1177 actually do for me?
Assess how urgent your problem is, tell you what you can do yourself, and direct you to the right reception. In some regions the nurse can also book you an out-of-hours slot. What the nurse cannot do, in the regions’ own words, is renew prescriptions, change medicines, see whether a referral exists, or manage appointments in the wider system.
Is 1177 free?
The advice is free — 1177 states there is no charge for using the line, and you pay only your operator’s cost for the call, which it says is the same whether you dial from Sweden or another country. What the call routes you to is not free: a patient fee applies, set by the region treating you. Interpreting during care is free to the patient.
Who actually answers when I call 1177?
A registered nurse working for one of Sweden’s 21 regions — not a national call centre. Each region staffs its own advice line, and 19 of the 21 share a common advice-support platform. Calls arriving on the international number go into a national queue and are distributed among the connected regions, so your nurse may not be local.
Related guides
- Getting sick in Sweden as a visitor — the four doors, what you are entitled to, and the reservnummer that stands in for a personal identity number.
- 112 and Sweden’s other emergency numbers — the line above this one, and what 113 13 and 114 14 are for.
- How a Swedish emergency department works — read this before you go, if 1177 sends you to akuten.
- Swedish pharmacies — often the cheaper answer the nurse points you to, with free advice at the counter.
- Getting a prescription filled as a visitor — the one thing 1177 explicitly cannot do for you.
Facts verified 2026-08-01. Sources: 1177 (the Swedish regions’ joint patient service), Inera, SOS Alarm, Krisinformation.se/MSB, Polismyndigheten and SKR — full register in this topic’s source file. We publish no patient-fee amount and no waiting-time figure here, because both are regional and revised annually. Found something outdated? Tell us and we’ll fix it.