The GGD and the consultatiebureau: child checkups and vaccinations, the TB test for your permit, and free STI testing

Dutch healthcare has two separate layers. Your huisarts (GP) and the hospital treat you when you are ill, and your health insurance pays for that care. The second layer is public health, and many newcomers do not know it: the GGD (Gemeentelijke Gezondheidsdienst, municipal health service). The GGD checks children's growth at the consultatiebureau (child health clinic), gives the free childhood vaccinations, does the tuberculosis test that some residence permits require, and tests young people for STIs free of charge. Some of these services invite you automatically after you register at the gemeente. You must arrange the others yourself, and one has a deadline that can affect your residence permit. This guide covers each service, what it costs, and the problems newcomers meet.

Municipalities are responsible for the public health of their residents. They carry this out together in 25 regional GGDs, which cover the whole country as one network. Every GGD has legal core tasks, such as infectious-disease control, health monitoring and youth health care. On top of that, each GGD offers its own mix of services, so the exact offer and the prices differ per region. Find your own GGD on GGD.nl: search by postcode or town. For children's care, some municipalities use a different desk with the same role: a Centrum voor Jeugd en Gezin (Centre for Youth and Family, CJG) instead of the GGD itself. Both provide the same youth health care.

The split is simple. You go to your huisarts when something is wrong: symptoms, pain, worries about your health. The huisarts diagnoses, treats and refers, and your health insurance pays for that care. The GGD works on prevention and public health: it follows healthy children, vaccinates, screens and tests. Mental-health care also starts at your huisarts, not at the GGD; the mental-health guide explains that route. Costs follow the same split. The GGD's children's services are free. Some services for adults cost money, and you pay the GGD directly for those.

The consultatiebureau is part of the jeugdgezondheidszorg (JGZ, youth health care), which is there for every child in the Netherlands from birth to age 18, free of charge. For a baby born in the Netherlands, the first step is the birth registration: register the birth with the gemeente within 3 working days. In the first week after birth, a screener from the JGZ then usually visits your home for two tests in one visit. The hielprik (heel prick) takes a few drops of blood from your baby's heel to test for a number of serious, rare diseases. The gehoortest (hearing test) checks whether your baby hears well enough to learn to talk. Both are free, and the screener asks your permission first. Heel-prick results come within 5 weeks. Usually nothing is found; if a result is abnormal, your huisarts contacts you for follow-up testing.

When your baby is 1 month old, the consultatiebureau invites you for the first visit. Visits continue through the first 4 years. The jeugdarts (youth doctor) and nurse weigh and measure your child, follow development, and answer questions about feeding, sleep, crying and language. Your child also gets the vaccinations of the national programme there. The care is free. Participation is voluntary: vaccination is your choice as a parent, and the screener asks your permission for the newborn tests. Nearly all families take part; the JGZ reaches about 95% of children and young people.

The JGZ does not stop when your child turns 4. It continues through primary and secondary school, with the same youth doctors and nurses. They follow growth and development at set moments during the school years and give the vaccinations for those ages. Parents often know this part as the schoolarts (school doctor). If you have worries about your child in between, you can contact the JGZ yourself; it stays free until your child turns 18.

The Rijksvaccinatieprogramma (National Immunisation Programme) protects children against serious infectious diseases, including measles, whooping cough, polio, meningococcal disease and cancers caused by HPV. The RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) organises it for the health ministry. Every vaccination in the programme is free for children up to and including 18. Vaccination is voluntary in the Netherlands: as a parent, you choose whether your child is vaccinated. Invitations arrive by letter and state where the vaccination is given, at the consultatiebureau for young children and through the JGZ at school age.

Children who move to the Netherlands join the programme too. When you come to live in the Netherlands with a child, the RIVM sends you a letter asking which vaccinations your child has already had. Based on your answers, your child receives invitations at your home address for the vaccinations that are still missing. Those catch-up vaccinations are free up to the 18th birthday, and the JGZ plans them in the right order (an inhaalschema, catch-up schedule). Vaccination records from your home country make this much easier, so bring them. If no letter arrives, or you are not sure what your child has had, contact the consultatiebureau or JGZ organisation near you. They will help you work out which vaccinations are still needed.

Government vaccinations are free only for children and certain target groups, for example the yearly flu shot for people with a medical indication and the whooping-cough shot for pregnant women. Other vaccinations cost money, and that includes travel vaccinations. Those are a paid GGD service: GGD Reisvaccinaties is the GGDs' official site for travellers, with online booking. Rates differ per GGD.

Many people who apply for a Dutch residence permit must be tested for tuberculosis (TB) after arriving in the Netherlands. The IND (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) handles this through a declaration of intent: with your application you sign a form promising to take the test and, if needed, accept treatment. The permit is granted on that condition. Where the TB test fits in your application depends on your route; the residence permits overview maps the routes, and the MVV guide covers family reunification step by step.

Whether you must test depends mostly on your nationality. You are exempt if your country is on the IND's exemption list (version valid from 30 May 2025). All EU countries are on it, and so are, for example, the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Turkey, Morocco, Ukraine and Russia. India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are not on the list, so nationals of those countries must test. You are also exempt in a few other situations: you already hold a valid Dutch residence permit and are applying for a different one, you were born in the Netherlands and have always lived here, you are 11 years old or younger, you took a TB test in the Netherlands within the last 6 months, or you are a long-term EU resident from another EU country (or their family member).

The test happens after you receive the permit. Make an appointment with your regional GGD within 3 months after receiving your residence permit. Take the TB test referral form (form 7604) with you, with part 1 filled in as far as you can. For adults the test is a chest X-ray. Children of 12 to 17 get a skin test or a blood test instead. The test is not free: each GGD sets its own price. GGD Amsterdam, for example, charges €60.00 for the chest X-ray, €42.00 for the skin test and €65.68 for the blood test (2026 prices). If the result leads to more tests or treatment, the GGD claims those costs from your health insurer, and they can count toward your eigen risico (excess).

After the first test, some GGDs invite you for follow-up screening. The national approach changed in 2019: instead of a new chest X-ray every 6 months for 2 years, most regions now offer a one-time test for TB infection with a skin or blood test. Some GGDs still use the older schedule and automatically recall you every 6 months for 2 years. This follow-up screening is offered by the GGD and is separate from the IND's 3-month requirement. The practice differs per region, so follow the invitations your own GGD sends.

GGDs run sexual-health clinics, known to young people under the name Sense. Sense.info explains STIs and testing in English; the site is run by the GGDs together with Soa Aids Nederland, Rutgers and the health ministry. If you are under 25, an STI test at the GGD is free. Capacity is limited, so a GGD only takes people from defined groups. GGD Amsterdam, for example, tests you free of charge if you are under 25, if you are a man or trans person who has sex with men, if you have symptoms or a partner with a diagnosed STI, if you experienced sexual abuse, if you do sex work, or if you come from a country where STIs are common. The exact groups differ per GGD, so check your own region's site.

Everyone else tests through the huisarts. That route is open to all and is covered by basic insurance, but the laboratory tests can be deducted from your eigen risico. So the practical rule: under 25 or in a risk group, book at the GGD for free; otherwise, call your huisarts.

A child who grew up abroad followed a different schedule, or missed doses entirely. The catch-up route covers this: the RIVM letter, then invitations for the missing vaccinations, free until 18. Missing paperwork slows it down. Ask for your child's vaccination records before you leave your home country; getting documents from abroad later is much harder, as the documents guide explains. Take the records to the first JGZ appointment. If you cannot get records, say so; the JGZ will still help you work out which vaccinations are needed.

Invitations follow from your registration in the BRP, the population register at the gemeente. So register as soon as you can. If you are registered and weeks pass without a letter, do not keep waiting: call or email the consultatiebureau or JGZ organisation for your area yourself and ask for an appointment. You find the right organisation through your gemeente's website or through GGD.nl. For a newborn, register the birth within 3 working days; the heel prick happens in the first week, and the registration makes sure the screener reaches you in time.

The consultatiebureau follows growth and development and gives vaccinations; it does not treat illness. For a sick child, call the huisarts. And the huisarts does not give the childhood vaccinations; those run through the consultatiebureau and the JGZ. Register with a huisarts practice in your first weeks, before anyone is ill. Many practices are full, and finding one takes time.

The TB deadline lands in the same weeks as your BRP registration, health insurance, bank account and housing search. Three practical points. First, book early; the deadline is 3 months and you need an appointment. Second, bring the referral form (7604) and money for the fee; the test for the IND is not free. Third, check the exemptions before you book: children of 11 or younger never test, and a TB test done in the Netherlands in the last 6 months counts. Put the TB test on your arrival list next to the other deadlines from the first 90 days checklist.

The national sites cover English well: the IND pages, the Rijksvaccinatieprogramma site, PNS.nl (the newborn screenings, available in several languages) and Sense.info all publish in English. Regional GGD websites are often Dutch-only; GGD Amsterdam is an exception with full English pages. Keep the Dutch service names from this guide (consultatiebureau, hielprik, Rijksvaccinatieprogramma); they are the search terms that work on gemeente and GGD sites. If calling in Dutch is the barrier, ask someone to call with you, or email so you can translate the reply.

GGD services come on top of your normal healthcare setup. You still need health insurance within 4 months of your insurance obligation starting, and a huisarts for everything that needs treatment. The first 90 days checklist puts all the arrival steps, including these, in order.