How to find and register with a GP in the Netherlands

A Dutch general practitioner (huisarts, or GP) is usually your first contact for a health concern. You are not required to register with one, but the government recommends it. The practical first step is to ask practices near your home whether they can take you on as a new patient.

Choosing a practice

Start with practices close to where you live. The National Health Care Institute says a GP may visit you at home for serious complaints and works to a guideline of reaching you within 15 minutes, so it advises choosing the nearest practice. Contact the practice to ask whether it accepts new patients from your address, how to enrol, which GP or team you would see and how to reach its out-of-hours service. If you need to consult in English, ask about that too rather than assuming it. A practice may refuse a new patient if it is full, if you live too far away, or if the GP cannot agree to particular wishes about your care; the government lists these reasons. Being able to choose a GP does not guarantee that your first choice has a place.

Registering and preparing for care

1. Ask the practice for its registration process. Practices may use a form or ask you to contact them directly. Confirm that it has accepted your registration, rather than assuming that sending an enquiry has put you on its patient list.
2. Have your details ready. Give the practice your address, contact details and health-insurance details if requested. Healthcare providers check a valid identity document against your citizen service number (BSN) when providing care, and the rule applies to children from birth. Ask the practice what it needs if your BSN or insurance arrangements are not yet settled. If you need care immediately, you do not have to show ID first, but you must identify yourself within 14 days after treatment. Without ID, the provider cannot bill your insurer and sends the bill to you.
3. Arrange your records. If you are changing from another Dutch GP, tell the old practice and ask it to send your medical file to the new one. If your earlier care was abroad, ask the new practice how it would like to receive relevant records and medication information. Do not assume it can retrieve them automatically.

GP care is included in the Dutch basic health-insurance package, but check your own policy with your insurer. Newcomers should check whether they must take out Dutch insurance and when their cover begins; the government describes the general rule and exceptions. Do not assume that a foreign policy, a pending Dutch application, or a student arrangement gives the same cover.

If every nearby practice is full

Contact your Dutch health insurer and ask for help finding a GP. Tell it which practices you have contacted and whether you have a current care need. The government says the insurer helps you search and can mediate. Insurers have a statutory duty of care, the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) says: insured people must be able to get covered care within a reasonable time and travel distance, so insurers must buy enough care, or mediate when someone cannot get it quickly enough. Every insured person is also entitled to care mediation (zorgbemiddeling) from their insurer, but the NZa calls mediation an obligation of effort rather than of result. If you still have no GP after contacting your insurer, you can report this to the NZa, which uses reports to spot wider problems but cannot mediate in individual cases. Your municipality can also provide information about finding a GP, according to the government’s newcomer guidance.

Costs and out-of-hours care

Under Dutch basic insurance, GP consultations and GP out-of-hours care do not use the compulsory deductible (eigen risico), but hospital emergency-department care does. Prescribed medicines, tests performed outside the practice and referred hospital care may use it. If you see an inschrijftarief on an insurer’s statement, that is the registration payment the insurer makes to the GP each quarter, even in a quarter when you had no appointment.

For a problem that needs attention during your practice’s opening hours, contact the practice. When it is closed, your GP refers you to the huisartsenpost: contact it before going to a hospital emergency department, and note how to reach it when you register. In a life-threatening situation, the government advises calling 112 directly. If 112 does not send an ambulance, you are told where to go instead and must arrange your own transport.