A new health clinic targeting mainly Turkish immigrants who are unhappy with or don’t understand the Dutch healthcare system will open its doors in Amsterdam next month.

The Vatan clinic is backed by health insurance group Agis and a group of healthcare professionals with a Turkish background.
Agis, one of the biggest health insurance groups in the Netherlands, noticed that thousands of its clients seek treatment in Turkey during the summer holidays. Last year, Agis paid for 24,000 Turkish clients to receive treatment in Turkey – up 10,000 on a year ago.
The aim of the clinic is to slow the flow of cash to Turkish hospitals and encourage patients to be treated here. The clinic will have a purely consultancy role. Patients who need help will be referred on to hospitals and other treatment centres.
Unnecessary treatment
Paediatrician and clinic founder Sukru Genco told tv show Nieuwsuur that patients in Turkey are sometimes given unnecessary treatment, including operations. And market research shows 90% of first generation Turkish Dutch patients would like to be treated in the Netherlands in their own language.
Genco said efforts to encourage general hospitals to take the different backgrounds of patients into account were sometimes rebuffed. For example, leaflets in Turkish about healthcare problems were returned to him with a note reading ‘we speak Dutch here’.
The Netherlands already has a number of initiatives involving foreign-language medical care. The Bronovo hospital in The Hague operates a special service for expats and the Amstelland hospital in Amstelveen has a Japanese language help desk.
Last weekend the Volkskrant reported on a special clinic for Dutch pensioners which had been set up in Spain where treatment is paid for by Dutch health insurance companies.
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