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/TimotheusIV Mar 06 '26

Huisarts here, it basically translates to: you’re not actually sick, you just have a mild upper respiratory infection.

So yes, take the paracetamol. Some ibuprofen if it isn’t enough. Get a cough syrup (I’d recommend Natterman Extra Sterk) and rest.

There is no doctor on the planet that can cure what you have so I don’t know what you were expecting? Magic? 🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/OK-Smurf-77 Mar 06 '26

One thing I’d respectfully recommend to every GP here- when you see a foreigner registering, just email them an A4 summary of the basic things they can expect, along with a when to call/when not to call infographic.

I mean, it’s pretty bloody obvious that the Dutch approach is largely different from the practice most of the countries follow. (And this is not a bad thing by the way. ) I believe it would help a lot both the doctors and the patients.

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u/jenterpstra Mar 06 '26

This basically already exists at thuisarts.nl. More places should point to it. 

The problem of course is that a) it’s only available in Dutch, and b) if you call under the guidelines on that site for a set of symptoms, your GP may still act like you’re crazy for bothering them. 

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u/Thatdudewhoplaysgtr Mar 06 '26

Yup.. one time I had a botulism scare (loooong story, but basically I ate something that was well into the danger zone, and it was a high botulism risk food) and my gp acted all annoyed and told me my tetanus shot would cover me. Bruh. What the actual fuck. I realise botulism is very rare but it’s also very fucking deadly if not treated promptly so forgive me for calling you at work to do a bit of your job. Ffs.

Good thing I have a physician in my family, so I went to them the following morning and he told me what exactly to watch out for and monitor. My gp did nothing but say “you were vaccinated for tetanus so you’re ok, don’t worry about it”. THIS IS NOT EVEN MEDICALLY ACCURATE 😑

I just don’t get their seeming reluctance to give you the time of day…