General Practice in the Netherlands

Dutch general practitioners; the Gatekeepers of the Dutch health care system.

One of the key characterics of the Dutch medical system is known as the 'gatekeeping' principle. This means that patients do not initially have access to hospital care. Instead, they must be refered for specialised care by their general practitioner, who thereby acts like a gatekeeper. This system is widely accepted, and 90% of all complaints are initially handled by general practitioners. This is considered to be effective en efficient. When care is needed, it is provided by the doctor best equipped to deal with the specific health problem and complex specialist care is reserved for patients requiring specific expertise and highly technical skills. There are more than 8200 GP's in the Netherlands for over 16 million in habitants. These GPs work in approximately 4600 practices. An average practice has 2350 patients.

Vocational training

Since the beginning of the seventies general practice in the Netherlands has experienced a major development. At that time each of the eight universities established a department for general practice (called GP training instituut), responsible for vocational and basic training and for research. Nowadays there is a 3 year training program for specialisation to become a general practitioner. The program consists of vocational training in a GP practice in the first and third year and clinical rotations in the second year (acute care for 6 months, chronic care for 3 months and psychiatry for 3 months). During the whole programme the GP trainees go to the university one day a week. There they focus on medical problems, clinical skills, communication skills and they exchange experiences of the past week.

If you are interested in coming to the Netherlands on the Hippokrates programme, please contact us.

National Exchange Coordinator for the Netherlands

Dr Geert Elbers (hippokratesnl@gmail.com)