GPs visit Malieveld: ‘We get emails every day, but we’re full’

(Photo: Marjolein Hakkeling).

General practitioners in Leiden are today taking part in the nationwide strike taking place on the Malieveld. GPs who traveled to The Hague to protest have arranged replacements with colleagues, so patients can still see a doctor for matters that cannot wait.

The points for which doctors give up work are bureaucracy, more time for the patient and help with accommodation practices. Lars Bosman, GP in training from September, will also join the Malieveld. “It’s a very beautiful job, but it must remain fun.” Above all, he hopes that the profession will become attractive again for people who have not yet made their choice. “If you, as a GP, continually read that GPs quit, it becomes increasingly difficult to choose to become one.”

One problem when starting or expanding a practice is finding space. Spatial expansion is also a problem at practice Vernhout at Lammenschans. A permit has already been rejected twice because too much has already been built in the garden of the property. Vernhout: “Since I took over the practice in 2016, we have grown enormously. In patients from 1:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. We receive emails every day from people who still want to register, but we had to refuse them for a year. She herself works from home one afternoon a week for lack of space. A final option is to put a container in the garden and landscape it. “Its good.”

To draw attention to the practice accommodation problem, practice GPs Jonkers and Otten de Lage Mors recently held their consultation hours under a tent.

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