New expat with ongoing medical needs

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

My advice is to get a letter from your specialist that you can bring to Holland and show to your doctor there.

There is a process you have to go through:

Arrive in the Netherlands and register with the Gemeente (Council) within 5 days.
Receive your BSN number
Take out your medical insurance (choose your supplier carefully and make sure that the cover you take out is suitable for all your needs); cheapest is not always best.
Register with your GP

Make an appointment with your GP and take your referral letter with you.  He/she will advise you further.

Make sure you take enough medication with you to last until you get through the bureaucracy.


Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

thank you, I've already asked for the letter, but taking a supply of medication will be difficult due to its classification and the restrictions on prescription amounts. I will try to get around this by asking my GP for a prescription and also the consultant who will usually oblige.  there can also be a work-around by getting a prescription for a similar drug that also works, if i'm lucky, I could get a few month's worth in

Hi again.

Medical Specialists tend to know each other across the world; it may well be worthwhile asking your UK specialist if he knows the name of colleagues in the Netherlands, or get him/her to mention it in their letter.

The Dutch Government have issued a guidance document regarding Health Insurance; this link will take you straight there; when you get to the webpage, there is a link to a Q&A section of the website entitled "Coming from Abroad", that is extremely useful.

The Dutch system is that you always work through your GP until you have a relationship established with your specialist, who may still insist you work through your GP; whatever, don't just turn up at A&E unless you're flat out unconscious in the back of an ambulance and they've brought you there, or have a limb missing because they will send you away to see your GP first for a referral.

Unless you want to pay extra, you almost certainly won't be able to choose the medication of your choice, it will be the cheapest that does the job, that your Health Insurance company will pay for; this link will take you to the Dutch Government website that explains it.

If you're carrying Prescription Only Medicines (POM's), then you should carry a copy of the prescription with you to show on request to border/customs officials.

Thanks again for the advice. I've obtained letters from my consultant with a history and also a full history of all the medication that was trialled. This is because I've read that the specific medication I require is not always covered on insurance unless the cheaper alternatives have been tried first.
My consultant also named a person in NL who is an EU wide leading expert in my condition and is based in Amsterdam. So, coming with lots of documents and already have the insurance application under way. 
Next up... finding a school that's willing to take 2 children that don't speak Dutch yet.

Hi again.

I still stand by my original advice on how to set yourself up when you arrive in the Netherlands.  You won't be able to set up one of the Dutch Health Insurance policies until you get your BSN number.

There is an excess on Healthcare Insurance policies in the Netherlands, how much of an excess is generally related to how much you pay in your monthly instalments, how it works is that you will always pay the Chemist for your prescriptions; the Dutch Government have this webpage that explains it a bit more.  When you reach your excess limit, your Insurance will start to refund your costs - you send them the receipt from the chemist.

To see if a specific medication is available in the Netherlands and work out how much you will pay for it, the Dutch Government have set up this website; it's all in Dutch, but basically, there is a search window, type in the name and you'll get a daily cost.  For example, I take Cetirizine on prescription for hayfever; depending on which brand my GP had opted for, I would have to pay between 0.03 and 1 Euro p/day of the cost of that specific medication.  There are some medications that are over the counter from the chemist in the UK but are prescription-only in the Netherlands.  Frustratingly, there are some medications in the Netherlands that you can't get in the UK.

If you're a family, you normally include your wife on your health policy; kids under 18 are included free.

Schools, not a problem, our kids adapted within weeks; you'll be amazed how quickly they pick Dutch up.  The problem is that sometimes the parents become dependent on their kids to translate for them.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Thanks again,
We agree that the kids will pick up the language quickly, in fact they're already learning with the aid of some games I picked up In The Hague and with google   (Yep, I know google translate isn't particularly reliable, I used to highlight that on a course I designed called "Lifting the Language Barrier".

My wife already speaks 4 languages so another will be easy, I also tend to pick up languages quite quickly and i get on really well with Rosetta Stone.

Go on YouTube and search for "Naar Nederland"; it's an online course that people use to prepare for the Dutch language exam that some nationals have to sit.  It's a bit more than just learning Dutch, there is an element of integration involved as well.

I wish you all the best in your journey.

Cynic
Expat Team

Thank you, we'll take a look at that course, although I struggle with video courses, see ADHD, but mostly because I'm more of a kinaesthetic learner, I learn more by 'doing' and find passive learning very difficult to absorb . Hence my love for Rosetta Stone and then simply getting out there and speaking  
Im' also a CELTA qualified teacher of English as a foreign language so picked up a few tricks back in those days too

Although I'm going off topic a bit now, any suggestions on courses suitable for a 5 year old and a 9 year old? We'd rather not just leave it to the school to teach them and want to help them ourselves too.

thanks again!

Speaking another language is more about not getting embarrassed when you mess up; I often tell people of my biggest mistake, when I went to the corner shop to get a postage stamp and walked out with a lottery ticket.  Language courses for kids that young are unlikely; I was a trainer before I retired and I recall from somewhere that 10 is the youngest where people get any real benefit from any formal training in things like languages, it's about retention.  If you really want to teach your kids something useful, buy an electronic keyboard - they're not expensive (you can buy them one each), you can hide the noise with headphones and you can take them with you.

Our kids learnt Dutch by playing on the street; Holland is a bit different to the UK; housing estates are developed into wonenwijks with much-reduced speed limits (20 km/h), play areas and cycle paths - our last house before we moved was in a play area; it was amazing.  If they were older I'd say different as the Dutch education system depends on them being native speakers if they are to get on to Uni-level courses, but they have plenty of time to learn and probably having anxious parents won't help them.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Thanks, yes, I remember my days when I first lived in Poland, I got so nervous speaking I actually didn't buy food and lost a lot of weight. Eventually I accepted I will make mistakes and that's how we learn. of course I still get nervous with native speakers, it's all natural.

As for the electronic keyboard, we're actually bringing our electric piano, our cornets, trombone and electric drums, we're quite a musical family and finally I'll have time to teach them to the kids

Ah - I still recall the day when I realised that just because I played the trumpet, did not necessarily mean I could also play the trombone (I have it gathering dust, hung on the wall by my monitor).  We found electronic keyboards far less stress-inducing than the other toys that people seemed to think our kids would enjoy.