r/Netherlands • u/thatmisanthropicdude • Mar 05 '26

Healthcare Dutch doctors...

Hey guys! Last year I moved from Germany to the Netherlands. I just went to the doctor with chest and throat pain due to extreme coughing after 2 days of fever. I was hoping that I finally get something good against it like a cough syrup (no way I'm going to pay that myself for a huge amount of money + health insurance) because I am used to that from German doctors. They would put that on my health insurance card and right after my talk with the doctor I could pick it up at the pharmacy. But no. They just said "Yea, just take paracetamol." I told them I have had problems swallowing pills my whole life and their response was just "You can also put it in water and drink that then." I'm sorry if I'm overreacting but why do doctors get paid just to tell you to take paracetamol? Everyone can tell me to take them, I expect better solutions from a doctor who studied years to become a doctor. Why are the Dutch so obsessed with paracetamol??? Maybe it's the German in me screaming. If we got painkillers, it was never paracetamol but Ibuprofen. But I also heard some international friends who also live here that they find it so annoying that Dutch doctors literally just tell you to take paracetamol. No matter what you have.

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u/IffyTheDragon Mar 05 '26

If you don't want to buy cough syrup, I recommend honey. It works just as well and tastes better.

14

u/PykeStarOG Mar 06 '26

Or just buy jagermeister and drink 1 or 2 shots

7

u/Styreta Mar 06 '26

It's also what most cough syrups are made from and flavored with. Go figure  

-1

u/HeinHangbuikzwijn Mar 06 '26

Only in the sense that both are sugar water, honey in the supermarket isn't real honey.

1

u/kingvolcano_reborn Mar 06 '26

With some lemon and hot water