Pat was confused about the family doctor system here in the Netherlands. It is very confusing indeed, so I’ll try and explain why all the registering steps are necessary here.
Firstly, you can’t just go to any doctor of your choosing here. You can only go to your own family doctor, and this doctor has to live within a 15 minute car drive away from you – no further. So when you move to a new city, you have to choose a new family doctor. This is a very nervwrecking thing to do, because all the ‘good’ doctors – ones that everyone likes and raves about – have reached their limits on the amount of people they can have associated with their practice.
When I first moved here, I spent a month looking for a doctor that was:
a) familiar with homeopathic medicine
b) close enough to my house
c) not at their limit of patients
I didn’t find one. In actual fact, some turned me down because they felt I live too far from their practice and there’s no way they can be with me within fifteen minutes – which is nonsense, because I can even get to them within 15 minutes by bus… I live in a fairly poor neighbourhood, so I guess the truth is they just don’t want to have people from my neighbourhood in their practice… tsk!
So now I have a non-homeopathic doctor, whose practice is close to home and she is also kind and seems very able (I’ve only needed to visit once, so I don’t really know yet).
During that month of hunting, I was also hunted by my previous family doctor who had become aware that I had moved, and was no longer legally allowed to have me in his practice, but was also not legally allowed to throw me out of it, because then I would be without a family doctor. So I made him very nervous and I received several letters and phone calls to please hurry up and find a new doctor. His assistant actually also joined in the hunt to find a new doctor for me! LOL
Thank all the gods that Kat is allowed to be able to register with her as well, otherwise it would have been another month of hunting!
I feared maybe we had to be married or parntnered in order for them to recognise us as a family unit, and therefore having the right to register with the same family doctor, despite limits and all that. But thankfully the assistant immediately said: “Of course your partner can register with us as well!” So pheeeew!
But we’re not there yet!
Kat can’t register there until she has an insurance. Doctors want this so they can be absolutely insured of getting payed. And she won’t get an insurance without having a social service number and a bank account. And she won’t get a social service number without being registered at a tax office. And she won’t get registered at the tax office without getting registered at the city council. And she won’t get a bank account without registering at the city council either.
So there you have the impossible maze of getting a doctor! And then we haven’t even discussed the impossibility of being seen by a doctor without being registered. Kat has already been through that process a few times, and it’s a complete maze of rules and regulations too.A family doctor is also the gateway to any other health service. If you want to see a psychologist, you first have to get a referral for it from your family doctor. If you need to see a kidney specialist, same thing.
Basically, unless you have an absolute emergency, there is nothing you can do healthwise except for going to see your family doctor and get treated by himself/herself or referred to a specialist.
The British NHS may have it’s faults, but Kat is right about one thing: at least it is accessible…
Once you are in, and have secured a good family doctor, the system here works pretty well I guess. It is rather handy y to have one person in charge of your medical file etc. , but it is an absolute struggle to get in.
And yes Sarah, at least we can be very very glad that Kat is a EU citizen. Otherwise this whole process would have been a million times more complicated and long. I think the only thing to do then is to just get married right away, but even that is probably a bureaucratic maze too…
In their effort to keep the ‘bad guys’ out, they are nearly succeeding in keeping everyone out.
Fortress Europe…
Holy crap! What a run-a-round!
Do you think the process will go pretty fast? Or will it be a while before Kat can see a doctor?
And “Fortress Europe” LOL! Passt genau!
Hehe it does indeed 😀
I’m hoping we’ll have it all done within a month. But then again, I’m a very naive and optimistic person haha
nou, je hebt de zaken inmiddels aardig in kaart gebracht!
Nu gewoon door met de volgende stap…
HaHahahaha! Het zit je goed hoog hmmmm, you even made a mind-map! Hahah,
Maar de content is minder plezant, potverdorie wat een gedoe. Hopelijk kunnen ze wel ECHT helpen als je dan straks helemaal klaar bent hiermee!
Kussen uit India
Man oh man, that totally reminds me of when we tried to get Sarah in to Germany. I hope for you it goes fast bc all this running around can be such a pain in the ass.