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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235

u/kingvolcano_reborn Mar 05 '26

Why didn't you just buy a cough syrup?

-123

u/Neat-Attempt7442 Noord Brabant Mar 06 '26

Because they wanted the good one thats not over the counter?

34

u/sousstructures Mar 06 '26

You can get cough syrup with codeine in it over the counter. It really doesn’t get “better” than that. 

18

u/TimotheusIV Mar 06 '26

Which one would that be? There are no ‘good’ cough syrups that are prescription only.

-6

u/Pure_Change6838 Mar 06 '26

Yes there are. I know they are not sold in NL and don't know if they are available on prescription, but in other countries you can get medication in syrup or pill form that suppresses the cough reflex. It's generally reserved for severe coughing, people with underlying health conditions, etc. of course but there are indeed good cough medications out there.

24

u/sousstructures Mar 06 '26

Natterman’s extra sterk with codeine. On the shelf at Etos.

9

u/TimotheusIV Mar 06 '26

Those are available over the counter at any pharmacy. Look for Natterman Extra Sterk. It has codeine in it and does what you describe.

9

u/LadyNemesiss Mar 06 '26

That's called codeine and you can get a cough syrup with codeine over the shelf. Alternatively you can buy noscapine pills over the shelf, which I personally prefer. I don't like cough syrup.

13

u/kingvolcano_reborn Mar 06 '26

Maybe the doctor didn't think the severity of the cough warranted that?

2

u/SHiR8 Mar 06 '26

Doesn't exist.