FAQs
Any time you contact the GP Emergency Post and are given medical advice over the telephone, you or your health insurance provider will receive an invoice. You will still receive an invoice even if your only contact was with the doctor’s assistant and he/she provided you with medical advice. The doctor’s assistant has been trained for this and does this under the responsibility of the GP on duty. The medical advice given by the doctor’s assistant is always assessed afterwards by a GP.
If you don’t appear at an appointment that was scheduled for you, you get an invoice for a phone consultation.
The current rates are shown here. These rates apply in the evenings, at night, and at weekends, and have been determined by law by the Dutch Healthcare Authority (Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit, NZa).
If you are living in Maastricht or surroundings you need a general practitioner (in Dutch ‘huisarts’) who can take care of you when needed. Check affiliated GP’s to find a genral pratitioner in your neighbourhood.
When you call the GP medical post, you will be connected to a triagist. This is a doctor’s assistant who has been trained to determine the urgency of a complaint based on a number of questions. Sometimes it turns out that it is not necessary for you to be seen by a doctor and you will receive advice by telephone. This is called a triage consultation.We used to call this a telephone consultation.
Identification is required, see https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/identificatieplicht/vraag-en-antwoord/identificatieplicht-zorg. Furthermore it is important to register the correct data in connection with the invoice. Always bring your ID showing your Social security number and your insurance card with you to the GP Medical Post.
Yes, of course you can call. If your own GP is not affiliated to the GP Emergency Post scheme, you can call the GP Emergency Post Maastricht en Heuvelland for urgent cases outside regular consultation hours. If you come to the GP Emergency Post for a consultation, you will need to pay either electronically (by debit card) or in cash straight away. You will receive a receipt for this. In case of a telephone consultation, an invoice will be sent to your home address. You can then declare the costs to your health insurance provider.
Troublesome but non-urgent problems can wait until your own GP practice is open again for consultations Repeat prescriptions can only be issued for medicines that are absolutely essential and only for a short period. You should not consult the GP Emergency Post for a second opinion or if you don’t have time on normal working days to see your own GP.
No. It is important for yourself and for the organization to first call the GP emergency room and present your complaint to the physician’s assistant you get on the line. Together, you and the doctor’s assistant will determine whether or not an appointment is needed for a consultation, or if a doctor will visit you at home. The phone number of the Maastricht and Heuvelland GP emergency room is: 043 7500123
The GP Emergency Post Maastricht en Heuvelland foundation is a cooperative venture between all GPs in the municipalities of Eijsden-Margraten, Maastricht, Meerssen and Valkenburg aan de Geul providing urgent GP care outside regular consultation hours: every day between 5:00 PM and 8:00 AM, throughout the weekend, and on all recognized public holidays.
The drivers of the doctor on duty have a great deal of knowledge of the region. In addition, the cars are equipped with a navigation system that shows the way.
Read full answerThe drivers of the GP on duty are allowed to use a flashing light and a siren in cases when time is of the essence and a person’s life is in danger and the doctor needs to reach the patient as quickly as possible. In principle, as is the case with ambulances, the doctor should arrive within 15 minutes.
The drivers of the GP on duty are very familiar with and knowledgeable about the region. The cars are also equipped with a navigation system.
If you cannot be transported to the GP Emergency Post for medical reasons, a GP will visit you at home. The GP will be brought by a driver who can also provide medical assistance. The driver has been given special training for this role. For instance, at the instructions of the doctor, the driver can hand the doctor medical instruments, or operate equipment used by the doctor.
This depends on the judgement of the patient’s condition. In cases requiring real urgency – for instance if the patient’s life is or could be in danger – the rule is applied that a medical expert must arrive within 15 minutes. This could be the GP on duty at the GP Emergency Post or it could be an ambulance. If the patient’s condition is less critical, the GP on duty will try to reach the patient as soon as possible. Naturally, emergency cases take precedence over less urgent visits, as is the case for your own GP.
No. Not having transport is not a reason to send the emergency doctor on duty. Patients must take care of their own transport. The GP on duty will only visit the patient at home if transport is not possible for medical reasons.
Our GP medical post participates in the collection of data for scientific research by the Netherlands Institute for Healthcare Research (Nivel). Nivel has a very strict privacy policy and does not receive information from us that allows patients to be directly identified. Patients can request more information from our care provider (s) and also register their possible objections.
More information can be found on the website of Nivel Zorregistraties first line: www.nivel.nl/zorgregistraties and for privacy protection: https://www.nivel.nl/nl/NZR/over-nivel/privacybescherming
Yes. Your own GP will be informed about your contact with the GP Emergency Post on the next working day.
This is only possible if you give your permission to your own doctor and your own pharmacy Ask them for a consent form and fill it in. When needed the GP on duty can check your medical details.
Your situation was such that the medicines had to be administered immediately during the consultation at the GP medical post or at your home. It concerned medicines that fall into the category for which payment must be made. Your details have therefore been passed on to the pharmacy afterwards, so that invoicing can take place. In this case, you could not go to the pharmacy yourself to collect the medicines and receive the invoice.
No. This is why it is important to bring along an up-to-date overview of the medicines you are currently using. (You can pick up this overview from your own pharmacy.)
See Pharmacy.
Only in urgent cases the GP Emergency Post issues repeat prescriptions. You will never be given a prescription for more of the medication than is required until you can contact your own GP for a repeat prescription. Certain medicines are never provided by the GP Emergency Post.
All conversations are recorded for the following reasons:
- To prevent any misunderstandings arising at a later stage about whether things were done correctly, for instance in the event of a complaint or a difference of opinion about advice given.
- To be able to evaluate conversations between the patient and the assistant and between the assistant and the doctor on duty within the framework of quality monitoring.
- For the purposes of checking the quality of the telephone communications and improving this if
- In case of any complaints, use the conversation as a source of information in the event of complaints from patients.
Yes. All telephone conversations with people who call the GP Emergency Post will automatically be recorded. They will be stored in a secure environment for one year, in accordance with the statutory guideline. The conversations are recorded from the moment that the doctor’s assistant answers the telephone until the moment that the connection with the doctor’s assistant or the GP is broken.
A number of strict rules – statutory and internal – apply to the recording of the conversations. For instance, the recording of the conversations has been reported to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (College Bescherming Persoonsgegevens). Within the GP Emergency Post, strict rules apply to listening to conversations again at a later date. These rules are set out in a protocol. Why are telephone conversations reco
See Privacy policy.