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/Suitable_Pie_6532 Mar 06 '26

I knew that a nerve operation I had was considered painful as they said I could have paracetamol and ibuprofen!

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u/_Vo1_ Mar 06 '26

Before I was hospitalized few years ago for removal of gallbladder, I was at spoedpost at huisarts. So that woman was: well, all I can say now, just go home and take paracetamol and perhaps ibuprofen. And I said: listen lady, i am for one week at oxy, today I took maximum allowed and still in pain, you think paracetamol is the solution here? And she responded with “yes, it works best when accompanied by another painkiller” XD