Tweet30-06-2010 om 10:00 by Amanda Potter

The first time you get sick or injured in a foreign country can be pretty scary.  There’s the doctor’s office or hospital to navigate, strange examination procedures, and new insurance rules. Then they prescribe a medicine and send you on your way. Where should you take that slip of paper? To the apotheek of course.

Apotheeks are pharmacies in the Netherlands and the only place to pick-up or purchase prescription medication. In addition to the prescription desk, they often carry a variety of over-the-counter medications, but never the more general health and beauty products such as you might expect to see in the United States. This specialization keeps the lines down and ensures that the staff is all trained and knowledgeable in helping you with both your prescription and over-the-counter selections.
If you are settling in, you’ll want to select an apotheek that is convenient to you so your doctor can always send the prescription to the same location. My doctor sends everything digitally so all I have to do is go in and pick up my medicine. If you’re just visiting, the doctor you see can give you a print prescription to take to the apotheek. Once there, it is a pretty normal pharmacy experience with a check of your name, insurance, other medicines, a signature, etc. before the medicine is passed over.

The real downside to the apotheek is that they are generally not open on weekends (or at least on Sundays). Inconvenient if you suddenly remember you need that allergy medicine before Monday. The shops do spell off for each other however and it is my understanding that at least one apotheek in Maastricht stays open through the weekend. The hospital (which shockingly does not have its own pharmacy) can help you locate the right shop.

Over-the-counter medicines are much more readily available and you can pick them up at a grocery store or any number of health and beauty shops. Unless I’m only picking up a pain killers (which I can get cheaply at the grocery store), I prefer to buy medicine at Etos. The staff at my local shop is friendly and always help me navigate the language barrier to make sure I’m picking up the right stuff. Of course, as the name implies, health and beauty shops are more like American drugstores; just without the actual pharmacy.

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