If Your Child Has a Real Emergency in Frankfurt, Here's Which of the Two Hospitals Actually Takes Them

The Official Rule

Knowing where to actually go for a genuine pediatric emergency, before you’re in the middle of one, is worth sorting out now rather than mid-crisis.

Two institutions in Frankfurt run dedicated, round-the-clock pediatric emergency care worth knowing about in advance: Clementine Kinderhospital and Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt’s Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin. Both treat genuine pediatric emergencies around the clock, but they aren’t the same kind of institution, one is Frankfurt’s only standalone children’s hospital, the other is a full pediatric clinic inside a larger university hospital.

Clementine Kinderhospital: Theobald-Christ-Straße 16, 60316 Frankfurt am Main (Ostend, next to the Zoo). Kindernotfallambulanz open 24 hours, phone 069 94992-0.

Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt, Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin (Haus 32): Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, 60590 Frankfurt am Main. Notfallambulanz open 24 hours, phone 069 6301-5249.

Clementine Kinderhospital: Frankfurt’s Only Dedicated Children’s Hospital, Since 1875

Clementine Kinderhospital genuinely is Frankfurt’s only hospital built and run exclusively for children and adolescents, a distinction the hospital and the city both state directly. It traces back to 1875, when Louise Freifrau von Rothschild founded what was then called the Clementine Girls’ Hospital in memory of her daughter Clementine, who had died young, with the explicit aim of giving children medical care matching the highest standards of the era. The 150th anniversary was marked on 6 May 2025 at a ceremony hosted by Frankfurt’s mayor, Mike Josef, at the Kaisersaal in the Römer, city hall.

Today the hospital sits at Theobald-Christ-Straße 16 in Ostend, next to Frankfurt Zoo, runs around 80 beds, and organizes care across ten specialized divisions: general pediatrics and adolescent medicine, neonatology, neuropediatrics, nephrology, diabetology and endocrinology, pneumology and allergology, rheumatology, psychosomatics, and neurological early rehabilitation. Its Kindernotfallambulanz operates 24 hours a day at 069 94992-0, and the hospital states directly that it handles acute conditions including respiratory distress, loss of consciousness, hemorrhage, cardiac issues, suspected stroke or paralysis symptoms, and poisoning. Since 2009, Clementine has operated jointly with Bürgerhospital Frankfurt under a single organization, now registered as Bürgerhospital und Clementine Kinderhospital gGmbH, though each keeps its own campus and its own identity, and Clementine holds the GKinD seal “Ausgezeichnet. FÜR KINDER” (certified for children), recognizing compliance with dedicated pediatric-hospital quality standards.

Photo by Thang Nguyen on Pexels

Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt: The University Hospital’s Round-the-Clock Kinderklinik

Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt’s Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin sits in Haus 32 at Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, on the university hospital’s main Sachsenhausen/Niederrad campus, and runs its own Notfallambulanz around the clock, every day of the year, reachable at 069 6301-5249. Patients arrive both by ambulance and as walk-ins, and on nights, weekends, and holidays the department is staffed by the clinic’s own on-call physicians rather than being folded into a general emergency room.

The department genuinely uses the Manchester Triage System, assigning every arriving patient an urgency category during an initial assessment, so treatment order follows how urgent a condition actually is rather than who walked in first. The hospital states this plainly: treatment follows strictly by the assumed severity of the illness, which can mean a real wait for a less urgent case even if other children arrive later.

One genuine change worth knowing: the university hospital’s previously separate, scheduled kinderärztlicher Notdienst has since closed. That service used to run its own limited hours alongside the full emergency department; it no longer exists as a separate track. Patients needing guidance outside an obvious emergency are now directed to call 116117 first, the same nationwide out-of-hours medical line covered in this site’s Kindernotdienst guide, rather than a hospital-specific on-call number. Scheduled specialist appointments run through a separate central booking line, not through the Notfallambulanz itself.

A Working Third Option: Klinikum Frankfurt Höchst

Neither Clementine nor the university hospital’s Kinderklinik is the only place in the region that treats a sick or injured child. Klinikum Frankfurt Höchst, on Frankfurt’s western side, runs a scheduled Kinder- und Jugendärztlicher Bereitschaftsdienst for the Frankfurt-West and Main-Taunus catchment area, plus its own general 24-hour emergency department covering the hours outside that schedule. It isn’t a standalone children’s hospital the way Clementine is, and its dedicated pediatric hours are more limited than either Clementine’s or the university hospital’s round-the-clock departments, but it’s a genuinely useful, closer option for families on that side of the city. This site’s Kindernotdienst guide covers Höchst’s exact scheduled hours, its own emergency department, and the full decision tree for which number to call, in more depth than fits here.

What Real People Say

Parents who’ve actually needed one of Frankfurt’s pediatric emergency departments consistently describe real relief at already knowing the address and phone number rather than searching for either in a stressful moment, several specifically mention that having both saved in advance let them focus on their child rather than a phone screen.

Families new to the Manchester Triage System commonly describe an initial moment of confusion, sometimes frustration, at seeing another family seen first despite arriving later, followed by a real shift in understanding once someone explains that severity, not arrival order, decides who’s seen when. Knowing this in advance, before an actual visit, tends to make that wait easier to sit through.

Step by Step

1. Save both addresses and phone numbers in your phone nowClementine Kinderhospital (069 94992-0) and Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt's Kinderklinik (069 6301-5249), before an actual emergency makes this urgent.
2. Work out which is genuinely closer to your regular locationshome, work, Kita, so the decision is already made before it matters.
3. Understand that both use urgency-based triage, not arrival ordera longer wait for a less severe issue is the system working as intended, not a sign of being overlooked.
4. Keep Klinikum Frankfurt Höchst in mind if you're on Frankfurt's western sidebut know its dedicated pediatric hours are scheduled, not round-the-clock, outside of which its own general emergency department covers the gap.
5. For anything that isn't an obvious emergency, call 116117 firstrather than heading straight to a hospital, since the university hospital's old separate on-call service has closed.
6. For non-emergency pediatric care, use your regular Kinderarzt insteadthese emergency departments exist specifically for genuine emergencies, not routine visits.

Compliance Note

This page explains the general structure, history, and contact details of Frankfurt’s dedicated pediatric emergency facilities, current as of mid-2026, but department hours, staffing, and phone numbers can change over time. This isn’t medical advice. For a genuine medical emergency, call 112 or go directly to the nearest emergency facility rather than relying on this page to decide.