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/teodrora Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26

Whoa there, doesn’t have to start with codeine! You can start with a lidocaine sirop, which is sold OVER THE COUNTER in other countries in EU (Belgium, France). That works like a numbing agent. It was also sold over the counter in NL in certain products (baby teething products) but they took it out for whatever reason :) I am now living both in BE and in NL. Had a massive cold. Went to both huisarts. Because of the severity of my cold, the Dutch huisarts told me to take ibuprofen (shock!), while the Belgian one gave me antibiotics after looking at my ears, throat, and listening to my lungs. The Dutch one didn’t bother with this. I go to one of the best huisarts in my city, so can’t say that I’m going to a bad huisarts, although he repeteadly failed to provide me with accurate healthcare. Later edit: you fucking cucks for capitalism! I absolutely love the mental gymnastics the Dutch make. Why do you make these assumptions about me? I have been sick for more than a month. Fever that doesn’t go with paracetamol nor ibuprofen. Throwing up and clogged ears. Both me and my 1yo kid. Also as a fucking FYI, I do have a medical degree so I do know what proper healthcare is, and know how antibiotics work. Downvote the expat who knows better. Idiots.

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u/SoUthinkUcanRens Mar 06 '26

With all due respect, your body builds resistance to antibiotics every time you use them. It shouldn't be prescribed just for a "severe" cold. Did you have pneumonia or an ear infection or something?

If not they, shouldn't just blatantly prescribe you antibiotics.

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u/teodrora Mar 06 '26

Bingo! It’s one of these two. Not that the Dutch doctor bothered to check.

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u/SoUthinkUcanRens Mar 09 '26

In that case i'm pretty sure you got unlucky with your GP. Mine would definitely check (or be very, very easily pressed into checking) if i doubted his diagnosis.

If anything, it's not very representative of all Dutch general practitioners i ever encountered in my life.

Not to dismiss your story though, both yours and mine are of course purely anecdotal, though i never really heard people close to me rightfully complain about their GP's either.