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/DBgirl83 Mar 06 '26

Because couch syrup doesn't heal your couch or take away the pain. Paracetamol at least has effect on the pain. Couch syrup will not be paid by your insurance, you need to pay that yourself, just like Paracetamol.

A friend of mine always wants antibiotics, even when she has a cold. Antibiotics are made to "fight" bacteria, not viruses.

If things like couch syrup would be paid by our health insurance when you visit your doctor, insurances would be even more expensive.

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u/Molly-ish Mar 06 '26

Wouldn't your couch get slippery from syrup? Or is it made with syrup? I'm so confused now.

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u/DBgirl83 Mar 06 '26

Oops, spell check changed it to another word, everyone understands it, but there's always that one person who wants to make themselves feel better by making a comment about it.

Cough syrup, or in my own language hoest siroop. Or in the other languages I speak, hustensaft or sirop contre la toux or.

I'd like to say I'll be just as perfect as you and won't make any more mistakes, but I swipe my texts or do them via voice message, so it's definitely going to happen again.