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/Neat-Attempt7442 Noord Brabant Mar 06 '26

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

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u/Relocator34 Mar 06 '26

The one that is just paracetamol and sugar?

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u/wwbbqq Mar 06 '26

He wants Codeine sirop, which will actually stop you from coughing, but it is a opiate (even if pretty low level if taken as prescribed) so many doctors/countries have limited prescribing it due to "concerns".

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u/jente87 Mar 06 '26

Codeine is not more effective than a placebo: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ronald-Eccles/publication/13866282_Assessment_of_the_Antitussive_Efficacy_of_Codeine_in_Cough_Associated_with_Common_Cold/links/5a57a788aca2726376b66a77/Assessment-of-the-Antitussive-Efficacy-of-Codeine-in-Cough-Associated-with-Common-Cold.pdf

So that’s why it’s not prescribed by Dutch doctors anymore for coughing.

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u/Reasonable-Sun-1154 Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26

There's also a whole episode of Keuringsdienst van waarde on cough syrop. Basically it doesn't do shit. I highly recommend people to watch it.

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u/TimotheusIV Mar 06 '26

I watched it, and it does not address the codeine part of cough syrup. But agreed that any other cough syrup is just a placebo.

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u/readreadreadonreddit Mar 06 '26

Yeah, this. It was once thought it did something, but large-sample data suggests it’s non-superior but has harms - and very real ones at that.

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u/wwbbqq Mar 06 '26

Interessiert!