Patients’ Favourite

Written on august 28th, 2025

And a little ode to family medicine/ Huisartsgeneeskunde

In my fifth year of medical school, I spent four weeks in the practice of a family medicine doctor in a small Dutch village. As everyone, including myself and the universe had expected this was one of my least favourite clinical rotations.

The family physician, my mentor, was a relatively young man, who had taken over the practice of the previous GP in the village. Having grown up in Greece in the 2000s -2010s, I hadn’t really been familiar with the concept of family medicine, which is what made this internship all the more interesting.  Particularly in small villages, it’s not unusual for the GP to know a patient from birth to death. Except for people with chronic illnesses requiring specialized care in secondary or tertiary centres, the relationship people in small communities have with their family practitioner is one that is almost unique to this branch of medicine. Some older GP’s have even followed a family for more than one generation. The longevity of such a relationship might make it easier for patients to reach out when a health concern arises. This is why a good huisarts (a family doctor in Dutch, literally translating to “house physician”) is invaluable.  

I didn’t like the family physician I had as my mentor. We had different views on religion; he had outdated views and insufficient knowledge in psychiatry. Worst of all, he was adamant about only using the transparent cups for tea and even making a snarky remark about it when I used them for coffee. Or maybe that’s just a Dutch thing. Yet he was a good huisarts.

If one of his patients was discharged from the hospital, he always made sure to give them a call and even more often pay them a visit to see how they were doing. Even if there was no medical indication. Even though it cost him half or even one hour during his workday which was already packed with appointments. He welcomed patients who he knew just wanted to vent. In all his interactions he was nothing but respectful. He cared for his patients. He made them feel like the door of his practice would always be open to them no matter how small or non-urgent their problem.  A big part of medicine is working with people – the most important amongst them being our patients and he was good at that.  I know his patients agreed because in the month I spent there many of them informed me of how lucky I was to have him as my mentor.