Zo lastig is het om als buitenlander dokter in Nederland te worden

🏥 We have a shortage of healthcare personnel in the Netherlands. For instance, there are not enough doctors. General practitioners, insurance doctors, addiction specialists: the doctor shortage is being felt in more and more places. At the same time, hundreds of foreign, non-European doctors are waiting to be allowed to work as doctors in the Netherlands. How is that possible? And what steps do you have to go through to actually work as a doctor in the Netherlands? Medical professions are protected professions, which means that you may only practice them if you meet strict legal requirements. If you pass all the tests, you get into the BIG register. And that BIG registration is currently stalled. Because there is not enough room for all the doctors who want to take the associated tests. Roozeeta Murtaza (31) is an example of such a foreign doctor. She fled from Afghanistan to the Netherlands five years ago. Her Dutch is now good enough to be allowed to take the tests, but she does not have a date yet. “I hope it will be my turn next year.” The Dutch Medical Association (KNMG), which advocates for the interests of all doctors in the Netherlands, responded that they find it concerning “when well-trained doctors are unavailable for deployment, while healthcare demand and staff shortages in the sector are high. As a result, valuable medical expertise remains unused, even though it is desperately needed in practice. This shows that tension can arise between careful admission procedures and rapid deployability.” For several years, a program for newcomers with healthcare experience has been running at the Utrecht hospitals UMC Utrecht, Diakonessenhuis, and St. Antonius. Over a period of six months, they are prepared to work within the Dutch healthcare system. According to Iris Homan, one of the project’s initiators, these professionals can contribute to solving healthcare shortages in the long term. “And in the short term, they increase the diversity of the team, and thereby the quality of care.” Minister Mirjam Sterk of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport wrote in a response to EenVandaag regarding questions about the procedure and the doctor shortage: “We desperately need everyone who wants to work in healthcare.” The Ministry is therefore taking a number of measures to improve the flow. For instance, 26 extra test slots are being created on a one-off basis. And in the future, participants will have to pay for the test themselves. “The educational institution can then expand capacity independently of the central government, allowing supply and demand to align much better.” With thanks to the Foundation for Refugee Students UAF for providing insight into the BIG procedure for non-European doctors. In consultation with Roozeeta, we have subtitled her interview. ——— #doctor #hospital #afghanistan ——— Want to see more? Subscribe to our channel: https://bit.ly/3wzjmkW. We are EenVandaag and we provide background on the news. We do this on TV📺, radio📻, and online📱. We analyze news developments📰 in a clear way that resonates with people. Through the EenVandaag Opinion Panel, more than 80,000 members can make their voices heard. Also visit our site https://www.EenVandaag.nl and follow us on Instagram (  / eenvandaag  ) and TikTok (  / eenvandaag  .