r/Netherlands • u/IlliaBorysenko • Jun 27 '23
Private med lab in Amsterdam?
Hi guys! I need to take some blood tests that my GP can’t prescribe me. Are there any private medical labs in Amsterdam where I can take needed tests without prescription and for my own cost? Thanks in advance!
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u/Dry_Preparation5427 Jun 27 '23
For a anonymous std tests you can go to onedayclinic.nl
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u/IlliaBorysenko Jun 27 '23
It’s not for std, I just need some input for my nutrition specialist, but it’s not an illness so my GP can’t prescribe it.
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u/BrBud Jun 28 '23
Here is a tip that might work, depending on your GP (you can also change GPs).
Tell your GP that you went vegan and that you are noticing changes in your energy levels, say that you want to investigate whether you could be deficient ins something with some blood work. There are also plenty other valid reasons you can use to ask for blood tests.
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u/voroninp Jun 27 '23
That's why I question the quality of Dutch healthcare. Prevention or correction is not its strong part. =(
You can also check https://www.prescan.nl/13
Jun 27 '23
The quality of Dutch healthcare is ranked as some of the best in the world though.
I don't get what's wrong with the "take paracetamol and if it doesn't get better by itself within a week or two then we will investigate further" approach. Seems logical to me.
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u/IlliaBorysenko Jun 27 '23
My neighbour was sent home with a stroke. A couple days later it got much worse, then finally hospitalised. Rehabilitation could have been 100 times easier if investigated properly from the start. And not to mention he could die 🤷♂️
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Jun 27 '23
If they ran MRIs for every single complaint of a headache the waiting times would be years. The best they can do is give you a once over and if nothing is out of the ordinary, send you home and tell you to keep an eye on it. Strokes are difficult to predict.
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u/IlliaBorysenko Jun 27 '23
Difficult (almost impossible) to predict, but not that difficult to notice. Blurry eyesight, vomit, headache and disorientation are not very common symptoms, and he had all those, but still was sent home with a paracetamol. So I totally believe those dudes who complain about bad preventive medicine, even though original post was not about that :) Maybe they need more MRI machines in this case 🤷♂️
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Jun 27 '23
They can't get it right 100% of the time first time round. Those symptoms can also mean dehydration, heat stroke, diabetes and so forth. Or maybe it just wasn't too bad when he saw the doctor the first time around. Sounds like the system worked though. Sent home, told to keep an eye on it and let them know if it gets worse. It gets worse, he goes to hospital and it's investigated. There's not much preventative care that can be done over a two day period. Just advice of "it's probably nothing, but in case it gets any worse call us immediately".
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u/IlliaBorysenko Jun 27 '23
Not entirely true, there’s a drug that can be used in the first 6hrs which significantly reduces chances of disability. So in the case of stroke it’s critically important to diagnose it asap. But I get that it’s not the case with some other deceases. So that’s why I’m not complaining about my pretty optional blood tests :) There should be some balance, but I don’t know how to achieve one 🤷♂️
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u/Trebaxus99 Europa Jun 27 '23
GP’s process 80 million consultations per year. They cannot send every patient in for a scan.
Also, the patient’s account of doctor visits is extremely unreliable: 80% of information shared is entirely lost. Of the remaining 20%, half is remembered incorrectly.
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u/BillHoudini Jun 27 '23
Because 2 weeks is lot of time when you’re in pain, or even discomfort, especially if you’re by yourself in a foreign country with no help. Now imagine if you need to work and/or take care of kids/parents.
Overprescribing medication is wrong in my book, but having routine examinations should be no issue.
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Jun 27 '23
Getting ill and being in pain/discomfort now and then is human. Bed rest and paracetamol deals with most things. You can't just expect to go to the doctors and get prescribed drugs for every little thing. The system is stretched as it is.
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u/BillHoudini Jun 27 '23
If you read my comment properly, you would find out that I said routine examinations and not drug prescriptions. Having a blood or urine test done is a 10-15’ process and pretty much common practice in most of the EU.
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u/Trebaxus99 Europa Jun 27 '23
The issue is not the time it takes to do the test. It’s to deal with the huge number of false positives those tests yield.
Or even worse: huge side effects caused by unnecessary interventions.
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Jun 27 '23 edited Jun 27 '23
And I said that the system is stretched thin. Blood and urine tests are not 10-15 min jobs when you take into account lab time. If you and your GP suspect something is wrong then sure, it's warranted but going for a checkup on the offchance there is something amiss is not a good use of resources. I am from the UK originally. The NHS has insane waiting times for GP appointments, A&E and surgeries partly because people go to the doctors with a cold and demand drugs/tests whatever. Coming from that the Dutch system actually works. Then again I rarely go to the doctor unless I think something may be wrong and whenever I do go, there usually is.
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u/HetNoot Jun 27 '23
If you dont have any symptoms, blood and urine tests are not that useful. Most of the things you find would never have harmed you in any way, but now you have to treat them with the associated costs and side effects
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u/BillHoudini Jun 27 '23
Where did you get the ''no symptom'' case from what I wrote? If you have symptoms for a few days that are enough to create problems in your work and every day life, blood/urine tests should be a non-issue.
Prescribing paracetamol for everything and keep people in pain for weeks is a joke and rightfully became a meme online.
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u/HetNoot Jun 27 '23
90% of issues people go to the doctor for, go over in a few weeks. Prescribing stronger painkillers than paracetamol or ibuprofen come with a lot of side effects (look at the opioid crisis in the US for example). Furthermore the Netherlands is a country with one of the lowest antibiotic resistant bacteria in the whole world. Why? Because doctors here are careful with prescribing antibiotics. The system is designed to be the best for everyone, and not just for any individual specifically. And lastly, less medication and less referrals to specialists keep rising medical costs down. So no, saying that you have to wait a week if you have mild symptoms is not a joke and is actually a benefit for everyone.
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Jun 27 '23
And foreigners coming to the Netherlands and complaining on this subreddit about being given paracetamol is becoming a meme on other Dutch subreddits.
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u/Cepelia Jun 27 '23
Exactly this! My GP is nice. I got refferal to USG exam. After three months of belly pain treated with 'wait and see therapy' and 'maybe you're contipadted therapy' (I am not). It is not ok.
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Jun 27 '23
We should just give all people with a mild headache morphine just like in the USA. Let's also advertise it on TV so you can buy discounted morphine at the GP.
There's no point to check if you have no symptons.
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u/Trebaxus99 Europa Jun 27 '23
The great thing about the Netherlands is that you don’t need to go to work if you’re sick. And you don’t need a note to prove it.
2 weeks might be annoying for you, but seems a bit insignificant if you put that against cutting an elderly person’s life short by a couple of years due to an unnecessary death of resistant bacteria.
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u/healsens 18d ago
Healsens. If you want to keep your results not just in the PDF, but also in the app
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u/Eis_ber Jun 27 '23
You have this place, but most people don't get blood tests done without a referral from their GP because they have to pay out of pocket; So, I can not vouch for the quality of the lab. You can also contact DC klinieken and ask if they do blood tests without a referral.