Small Animal Hospital appointments and emergency duty

Appointments
You can reserve an appointment via the Small Animal Hospital customer service line from Monday to Friday at 8:15am–11pm and 12:15–3:30pm.
Tel. +358 9 191 57201
During appointment reservation hours (weekdays from 8am to 4pm), anyone from anywhere in Finland can reserve an appointment. Patients coming in for further examination must have a referral from their own veterinarian.

Emergency duty
In case of emergencies, the Small Animal Hospital has an emergency service, which provides first aid in urgent cases outside normal hours:

• weekdays outside normal hours, from 4pm to 8am
• weekends, from Friday at 4pm to Monday at 8am
• public holidays

Off-hours emergency duty covers the Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen, and Kirkkonummi area. Residents of these cities may come directly to the emergency clinic. Emergency-duty fees are higher than the normal rates.
Residents of other areas may come to the emergency clinic only with a veterinarian's referral. The referring veterinarian must always agree on referral of a patient to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital with the veterinarian on duty. 

Small Animal Hospital emergency room tel. 0600 97411 (cost of the call: €2/min + local network charges)

• The emergency-duty phone service is in use outside office hours (on weekdays from 4pm to 8am and from Friday at 4pm to Monday at 8am) and on public holidays.
• As a rule, the phone is answered by a fifth-year student of veterinary medicine. During the call, the student may consult the veterinarian on duty. Depending on the current situation in the emergency clinic, the phone might be answered also by a fourth-year student or an animal attendant.
• Only matters related to urgent cases of small animals kept as pets are handled by phone.

The emergency service handles cases in their order of urgency
During emergency-duty hours, the Veterinary Teaching Hospital has fewer staff available, so getting treatment can take some time. Consequently, patients are treated in the order of urgency, so that the most serious cases are handled first.
It is good to remember that during emergency-service hours, in addition to emergencies, the staff also care for patients already in hospital wards. We ask for your patience – especially on public holidays, queues can occasionally be long.