Since July I have been battling something, I am not sure what, but it has made me really ill and caused me to miss out on a lot of fun activities. People would invite me to meet up and I often I just couldn’t go. About two weeks ago it got to a point that I couldn’t put manage anymore. I was sick for a solid four days and considered going to the emergency room, or equivalent. But it doesn’t work the same here, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
But we still didn’t have a huisarts (family doctor). I had been calling practices since we arrived in the summer and no one was accepting new patients. So what do you do when you can’t keep anything down for days on end and you can’t just roll up to the hospital for some anti-nausea medicine and IV fluids? You start calling again, begging anyone to see you.
Interestingly, most practices have only one person who answers the phone and no answering machine. So if you call and the assistant is busy, you are directed to call back, no sitting on hold or leaving a message. Can you imagine how long that means it takes to get through to each office? Oh, and they are closed usually for 1.5 hours for lunch.
After calling the sixth practice asking for someone to see me, I was almost in tears. I asked the assistant what she could suggest, since no one would see me and we couldn’t find a practice accepting new patients. Well…it seems the doctors, who are all aware of the situation, came together and agreed to divide up people without huisarts based on last names – for urgent issues only. And this kind lady told me who I was assigned to. Thank you!
So I called that practices and explained my issue, my lack of a huisarts, and the need to see someone. The assistant begrudgingly scheduled me to come in the next week. Minor success. When I arrived the appointment was efficient and on time. The doctor listened to my issues and ordered some bloodwork. Another process…
You don’t just walk down to the lab and get your blood drawn. They have to wait for them to email you the requisition, and then call to make an appointment. The entire phone tree was in Dutch, so I never was able to make an appointment, but I did find out that you could show up and wait for them to work you in, which I did today. Another test in bureaucracy, you need to get a hospital card and then go to the lab. I made it through, which is a minor miracle given my fear of needles and specifically getting my blood taken. Now to wait three days and call for the results.
But…the best news! We finally had a doctor agree to accept us as patients. I haven’t met her yet, but I can’t tell you what a relief it is to know that if we need to see a doctor, we can do so (relatively) easily.
Red, White and Tulips 