Your appointment

Making an appointment

To make an appointment, you generally need a referral from your GP or other specialist. A referral is not required for the Accidents & Emergency Department (A&E).

Do you have foreign (non-Dutch) health insurance?

• You do not need a referral letter from your general practitioner (GP). However our physicians do prefer a referral letter or a medical report to be able to assist you at their best capacity.
• You only need a referring physician – either from inside or outside the hospital – for tests, like radiology or lab work.

Do you have Dutch health insurance?

• You must see a GP first for a referral letter. Without a letter, it is not possible to get an appointment at HMC.
• In case of an emergency, it is not necessary to bring a referral letter.

You can make an appointment in two ways:

1. Make an appointment online. Some appointments you can schedule yourself through the patient portal mijnHMC. Your referral letter will tell you if this is possible.
2. Make an appointment by phone. You can call the outpatient clinic you wish to make an appointment with during weekdays. The phone numbers can be found on the specialty pages.

What do you need to register?

You need a valid medical insurance document. If you have health insurance from a non-European country, we need a letter from the Embassy or a ‘Guarantee of payment’ covering treatment. You also need your identity documentation: passport, driving licence, identity card or residence permit. And the details of your (new) general practitioner (GP) and/or address.

What if:

• Your identity documentation is no longer valid:
  You will not be able to use it to identify yourself with a healthcare provider. You will first need to purchase a new proof of identity via the municipality where you are registered.
• You don’t live in the Netherlands:
  You can register if you have a valid proof of identification.
• You don’t have a general practitioner (GP):
  Within the Dutch healthcare system, almost all non-emergency care begins with your local family doctor (‘huisarts’): your GP. This means that it is very important to sign up with a local GP once you live in the Netherlands. Read more about finding a GP at the websites of Huisartsinfo, Hadoks (care in the Haaglanden region), The Hague International Centre or Healthcare 4 internationals.

More about insurances and costs

Changing or cancelling an appointment

You can cancel or rearrange your appointment by phone. Make sure you do this no later than 24 hours before your appointment. Please call the outpatient clinic where you have an appointment. You will find the phone number in your appointment information. If you do not have the outpatient clinic number, you can call 088 979 79 00.

Did you not let us know or let us know too late that you are not coming? You will have to pay for the appointment.

Your safety

Your safety is our priority. For example: we will regularly ask for your name and date of birth to ensure we are speaking to the right patient. Our staff always disinfect their hands before treatment.

What can you do?

You can also contribute to a safe admission and/or treatment in the hospital. For example, always bring along an up-to-date overview of your medication to the hospital. And do ask questions if there is something you don’t understand. You can find more tips on our website under Preparing for an appointment or treatment.

Monitoring

We continuously check the safety of our care and are audited by external organisations such as the Health Care Inspectorate (IGZ) and Qualicor Europe. Should any unwanted events occur, despite all our precautions, we will look into this with a specially trained team. Any serious events will be reported to the IGZ.

Have you visited a foreign hospital?

Please let us know if you have been treated abroad in the past year. This helps us prevent the spread of resistant bacteria like MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) or MDRO (Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms). Before your visit, answer the following seven safety questions:

1. Have you been infected with MRSA or other resistant bacteria (MDRO)?
2. Have you been admitted to, or received treatment at, a foreign hospital or a national hospital/care institute other than HMC during the past two months?
3. Have you been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for MRSA or other resistant bacteria (MDRO) during the past two months?
4. Have you been in contact with any commercially kept pigs / veal calves / broilers, or do you live on a farm where these animals are kept?
5. Do you have an adopted child (up to ten years old) and have they been in the Netherlands for less than a year?
6. Have you been resident in an asylum seeker centre in the last two months?
7. Have you visited the Middle East, or another country where MERS or Ebola is prevalent, in the last four weeks?

If you have answered one or more questions with a YES, please let us know. You can do so on the day of your appointment at the reception desk.

If you have answered all seven questions with a NO, you don’t need to do anything else.

We act in accordance with the Working Group for Infection Prevention (WIP)’s national guidelines in case of a (suspected) MRSA or MDRO infection.

More about preparing for your appointment
You can translate this page into another language

Route description and parking
You can translate this page into another language