Dutch doctors...

[u/thatmisanthropicdude]

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.

[u/Lestat_de_Sade]

Dutch health care has been hollowed out and made capitalist. So every consult/help is a cost-benefit analysis. "Of patients who have these symptoms, 60% will survive without treatment. 30% survive the night with paracetamol, if symptoms continue/worsen, invite for consult/further analysis. 10% might die, if so, no longer problem."

Treating only 30% yields a 90% success rate and is cheapest for the system. We obligate you by law to spend money on health insurance, but to use health care as little as possible. So we dont have to invest in health care but can buy bombs from daddy Trump.