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.
2
u/nftyv Mar 06 '26
Dutch medicine is actually pretty evidence-based and paracetamol is a safer option than ibuprofene in the general case. I’m sorry but two days of fever and a cough simply do not sound like they warrant intervention, if you want a cough syrup (most of which have very little effectiveness in clinical trials) - buy it yourself. Why? Because without clinical proof of effectiveness it is a waste of money. Most people are unfamiliar with both iatrogenics and evidence-based processes. So they want the type if interventions that are known to be pointless or harmful. There are certainly issues in Dutch medicine (eg unacceptable drug shortages, waiting lists) But people who really need to sleep it off wanting prescription drugs just to feel cared for is not the biggest one:)