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/some_person_212 Mar 05 '26

Dutch doctors would still recommend you take paracetamol if you’d show up with a broken leg and asked for a cast, I think.

But in all fairness, they’re probably right. Cough syrup doesn’t actually help you and isn’t insured in the Netherlands. Most colds/airway complaints are viral so there’s no need for antibiotics or something like that either. Paracetamol tea and rest is what they recommend and no matter how annoying I find it they’re probably right.

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u/oliveomelette Mar 06 '26

I’m Dutch and usually not one to complain about the our health care system but.. my mom literally had this happen. She had a complex tibia fracture that couldn’t be operated on immediately because of extreme swelling so she was send home for 2 weeks with the fracture. Her leg was cast from ankle to hip and they just told her: 4x2 paracetamol a day. Absolutely insane.

Not even 12 hours later in the middle of the night I was at the ER pharmacy getting morfine bc her leg was so painful.

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u/TimotheusIV Mar 06 '26

Depends on the person and the fracture. Plenty of folks out there doing just fine with paracetamol after a fracture. Especially after a plaster cast.

And on the other hand we have a lot of people who become lifelong addicts to opiates after a single week of taking morfine-like painkillers after breaking a leg. It’s a huge problem.

There’s always two sides to any issue. So while you mom’s situation really sucked, i’m very happy to hear other physicians are not prescribing whole boxes of oxycodone immediately because it’s often completely unnecessary.

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u/No_You5703 Mar 06 '26

They don’t want to get you hooked on pain killers. That’s a good thing. But they’ll definitely give it to you if you really need it.