Getting treated in the Netherlands.

It's interesting how medical profession differs in European countries, not only in terms of medical procedures used and technological advancement, but also in terms of attitudes towards health in general.

I'm not a fan of doctors, in fact I simply dislike any medical appointments, but since I arrived in the Netherlands in September I had a few contacts with the medical profession.

What needs to be noted is that healthcare in the Netherlands knows no such thing as NHS in Britain or NFZ in Poland. There are no government-provided medical services, even basic ones, so you need to take out a private medical insurance or pay out of pocket. A question about your insurance card is asked again and again, at a chemist's, gp, hospital and any other medically-related places.

The first instance of my Dutch medical exploration was when I needed a prescription. First surprise, the practice actually replied to my email. When sending emails to such institutions you never know whether you'd ever hear back, so it was a plus. The GP spoke English, which is always helpful, especially if your Dutch abilities are rather limited and the appointment was very smooth. So far so good.

What I found interesting was how prescriptions are organised here. You get a piece of paper with a barcode on it which holds all the details. Then, if the medicine is something you need to take regularly, on picking up a dose you get another piece of paper with a renewed prescription. In Poland prescriptions are still usually hand written and need to be renewed in person, which requires multiple trips to your gp, so it was a bit of a novelty. I don't like that prescriptions are tied to a specific chemist's. Your doctor will ask where you usually go to pick up your medicine and each renewed prescription will need to be used at this chemist's, which might sometimes be inconvenient. 

Later I had to see a doctor again. In the meantime I came across this blog post on how to approach Dutch doctors. Having done a bit of research into Dutch healthcare, I was aware that the GPs deal with most things (which is in contrast with health care in Poland which is rather specialist-dependent), medicine is not preventive (so many people see a doctor only when things go horribly wrong), and paracetamol is treated as a miraculous cure (but so is the case in Britain, so no surprises here for me). Equipped with this knowledge, and a list of things I wanted from the doctor, off I went for my appointment and, having come across a trainee doctor, got everything I've requested (probably due to a mixture of her little experience with patients and my inexplicable symptoms).

I also had a pleasure to got for a few medical scans to a nearby hospital (the practice has no diagnostic equipment) and encountered a ridiculous number of ticket dispenser. I guess the Dutch are not so good at forming a queue and a piece of paper with a number is absolutely necessary. What was really annoying is that no one really tells you you need to have a number. Thank God I understand enough Dutch to read the signs and labels on different buttons on those dispensers!

That's all about getting treated  in the Netherlands. Still, I prefer not to see doctors. I'll carry on eating my daily dose of oranges.