Baseline health care for refugees in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands there are some 20,000 refugees from different parts of the world most of whom have experienced a form of organized violence. The somatic and psychosocial complaints are mostly of a aspecific kind and making a diagnosis can be difficult because of the culturally different presentation of ill being. In order to help general practitioners in making a diagnosis the Refugee Health Centre (CGV) has made a classification of complaints according to whether or not they have a specific cause. (JLN)