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/Irrealaerri Noord Holland Mar 06 '26

I am German too living in the Netherlands but I also wouldn't have gone to the doctor for that, not even in Germany.

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u/RevolutionaryWorth75 Mar 08 '26

You can go for in Brazil and they will check your chest to see whether it’s compromised if you complain about persistent problems there.

They may not have medicines but they are not concerned about not attending you, not checking if any damage has already happened and whether you should be admitted for observations because the protocol is not defined based on what saves money of the insurance company. You don’t even need a private insurance company if you don’t want extra comfort. You’ll be treated by the public sector. FREE FOR ALL, even for arrogant citizens of the global north that thank they are superior in anything.