Six thousand patients of a Leeuwarden GP have been told the advice from their foreign doctors will be ignored, according to the Leeuwarden Courant.
GP Igor Monzón told the newspaper that his practice doesn’t have the time to take on all the advice they get from different foreign doctors through internationals.
Monzón’s practice is close to the University of Applied Sciences NHL Stenden and has a lot of students coming in. Around 1,000 of them are international students. Some of these international students share the advice they are given by their doctors in their home country with Monzón’s practice.
Monzón claims that usually the advice isn’t backed by medical knowledge “but is only used to make money”. It takes the practice about an hour a day to get the right treatment trying to include the different advice from foreign doctors, and this is valuable time for a practice with a staff shortage.
The GP said that many of these students have psychiatric issues and Sometimes they come with 3 different kinds of drugs. “For example alprazolam [Xanax], but we don’t use that anymore here as an antidepressant because it’s addictive,” he said.
He feels that there is more and more foreign advice coming in. “I tried to work with them, but it’s not doable,” he said. In his patient newsletter, he also states that the health care in the Netherlands is of very high quality. “Together with Australia and Norway, we’re in the top 3 of the world. A lot higher than for example the US (23),” he said.
“Advice like ‘you have to go to a gynaecologist every year’ or ‘you have to do a general checkup every 5 years’ is all scientifically incorrect, but in many countries, this is normal advice from doctors, usually because of financial reasons,” the GP said.
From this month on, Monzón’s practice will be ignoring advice it receives from their patients’ foreign doctors.
According to him, another issue is that the Dutch Mental Health Care (GGZ) doesn’t take on internationals from outside the EU. “This is because of their insurance. It’s all so bureaucratic that it’s difficult to get the compensation as a health care professional,” he said.
“We resolve this by letting students pay in cash and regulate their compensations themselves, but it would be good if the insurance was handled better for them,” he added.
The GP has expressed his concern about mental health care to the University of Applied Sciences, but they can’t do a whole lot with it. The foreign doctors’ advice and health insurance issues aren’t the only concerns he has, “There’s no student psychologist anymore either.”
NHL Stenden told the Leeuwarder Courant that there is no student counsellor or psychologist. However, they do have guidance counsellors, confidentials, and an ombudsman who can help students get specific help with mental issues. “We have one external psychologist, though referring goes through the GP, which could be a reason for them being extra busy,“ the university said.
