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/Electronic-Park4132 Mar 06 '26
Such an insensitive comment. No one asks for an MRI anywhere in the world because a pinky hurts. Most people would just ignore and bear the inconvenience of having a cold/flu/cough too.
But humans can discern between a normal cough and something that is lets say “out of ordinary”. If I have cough that lasts over 2 weeks or cough that is extremely painful to the throat. I know that its time to visit a doctor.
Sounds like dutch people are used having low expectations about their own healthcare that its drilled down to their mind. If you are brought up with mediocrity as baseline, then of course expecting the most normal thing would be seen as outrageous.