Almost a third of the Dutch think that GPs are not easily accessible by telephone.
This is apparent from research carried out within the Consumer Panel of Healthcare of the Netherlands Institute for Healthcare Research, NIVEL. Patients want to answer the phone within one minute † But that is not always the case.
No hearing
Only 60 percent are contacted on the first call attempt. When telephone contact is not immediately successful , most try again later. However, one in ten patients calls the emergency line , and four percent even call 1-1-2.
Two minutes
In 2008, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport determined that general practitioners must answer the telephone within two minutes † There is a time limit of thirty seconds for the emergency line. Research by the Health Care Inspectorate has previously shown that the telephone accessibility of general practices is bad. †
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Research by NIVEL shows that patients are even stricter than the Ministry and the Inspectorate. They believe that within one minute someone from the GP practice has to answer the phone.
