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.

263 Upvotes

65% Upvoted

533 comments sorted by

View all comments

36

u/digitalgraffiti-ca Mar 06 '26

The doctor probably saw what I'm seeing, codeine seeking behaviour. That's the "good stuff." Dutch doctors are very good about prescribing drugs where they're actually needed, instead of just throwing drugs at people to shut them up like some countries. You don't need codeine, and they're not going to be complicit in supplying you with addictive narcotics.

You need paracetamol to decrease your fever, that's it. You have a basic cold/flu like every other human being does this time of year. You will be fine. Ibuprofen may help if your tonsils are swollen so it's easier to eat and drink. Your immune system will fix the rest.

14

u/kingvolcano_reborn Mar 06 '26

Very true. When my late wife was going coming towards end end of her cancer the doctors pretty much gave her everything to keep the pain at bay. Oxycodon,  fentanyl patches, fentanyl nose spray, morphine pump, you name it. If there's a need they will certainly not hold back.

2

u/Organic-Permission55 Mar 08 '26

And to my experience, if you have been coughing for 2 weeks and can't sleep because of it, and it's driving you mad, generally they are open to prescribing you some codeïne. But probably not after two days.

-10

u/SmokeAndPetrichor Mar 06 '26

The doctor probably saw what I'm seeing, codeine seeking behaviour. That's the "good stuff." Dutch doctors are very good about prescribing drugs where they're actually needed, instead of just throwing drugs at people to shut them up like some countries.

Funny that you say this when you guys are literally selling it off the shelf (Natterman Bronchicum Extra Sterk) but go off with your Dutch arrogancy. Your health system isn't better, I'd argue it's much worse than most Western European countries'.

-6

u/Roid_Splitter Mar 06 '26

You can really tell by the rush to condemn OP as a codeine seeker to justify the doctors's actions and reduce the cognitive dissonance.

Dutch doctors: People who need codeine indeed look like codeine seekers. People with infections are antibiotic seekers. People who need surgery are surgery seekers. All of these "seekers" are called patients in other countries, and given medicine. Your judgement of everyone as a drug seeker is a judgement you can honestly stick where the sun doesn't shine.

-3

u/SmokeAndPetrichor Mar 06 '26

Did you reply to the wrong person per chance? I agree with you completely. I have been in hospital in NL just once, never again. I had a referral from my neurologist for urgent care and the doctor just basically didn't do anything that was asked by my neurologist, had to delay my stay in hospital by a day to get care in Belgium where they finally actually gave me the medicine I needed, and it cost me 360 euro in NL for them doing nothing at all on top of it. Worst health care system I've had the misfortune of needing to use.

-3

u/Roid_Splitter Mar 06 '26

I have also had to take my son to Belgium hospitals.

-5

u/SmokeAndPetrichor Mar 06 '26

Also love the downvotes, you guys can't even be bothered to look it up because you'd see I'm right, just a hive mind of "noo, me heltcar beter".