– Organizations or employers want more and more ‘medical certificates’. For anything and everything. Pietje needs an ADHD statement for school, Jantje needs a statement that his knee is injured and that is why a golf cart is allowed on the golf club and the police and municipalities are increasingly coming to us for all kinds of explanations. But we GPs are not allowed to sign a statement at all. But explaining that takes a lot of time.
– Patients come to the doctor faster and want more. Because we can do more. Just because we can do it doesn’t mean we want to. For example, having blackheads (monium, medical term) removed from the doctor because you don’t like them. Yes you can, but we don’t want to. This puts normal general practitioner care under pressure.
– There is a shortage of support staff such as assistants and practice nurses. This costs us GPs extra time. They are indispensable in general practice.