The Dutch Flu Shot (Griepprik): Who Gets Invited

Every autumn around 6 million invitations land on Dutch doormats offering a free flu shot on a named date at a named time. Internationals meet them in two ways: a housemate gets one and they do not, or one arrives addressed to them and they cannot tell whether it is a bill, an obligation or a marketing offer.

It is none of those. It is an invitation from a national programme with a defined list of who is in it, sent by your GP practice.

💡 Related: vaccinations in the Netherlands, how the Dutch healthcare system works, finding an English-speaking doctor.

The invitation comes to you, and that is the whole design

The Dutch approach to seasonal flu is not a walk-in campaign in shopping centres: GP practices and institution doctors invite the people in the target group, under a national programme.

RIVM describes the volume plainly: in October and November around 6 million people receive an invitation for the flu shot, from their huisarts or instellingsarts (rivm.nl, griepprik, retrieved 2 October 2026). The letter states when and where you can come and at what time.

Two consequences follow, and both catch people out.

You do not apply. There is no portal, no booking site, no national phone number for the free shot. If you are in the group, the practice that holds your file contacts you.

The practice sends the letter. RIVM says the invitation comes from your huisarts or instellingsarts, so if you have no Dutch GP practice, nobody sends you one.

Who is actually on the list

RIVM publishes the target group in detail, and it is broader than the “over 60” shorthand suggests. The listed groups include:

• Age 60 and over, which RIVM extends to people who turn 60 before 1 May of the following year.
• Lung disease, for example asthma treated with anti-inflammatory medication, COPD, or severe and long-lasting lung damage after COVID-19.
• A problem with the function of the heart, such as after a heart attack, with arrhythmia or with heart failure.
• Diabetes type 1 and type 2.
• Kidney disease.
• Reduced immunity through illness, medical treatment or immunosuppressive medication.
• Neurological and neuromuscular conditions, including muscle disorders, Parkinson’s, ALS, stroke and epilepsy.
• Very severe obesity, with a BMI of 40 or above.
• Dementia, a cochlear implant and intellectual disability.
• Residents of care institutions who do not already fall into one of the categories above.

All of the above is taken from RIVM’s target-group page (rivm.nl, voor wie is de griepprik, retrieved 2 October 2026). Pregnancy and children have their own conditions attached and are handled below.

If you recognise yourself on that list and have never had a Dutch letter, that is the item to act on this month, not in the week you feel a cold coming.

Pregnancy: from 22 weeks, within a set window

Pregnant women are part of the programme on precise conditions: RIVM includes them from 22 weeks of pregnancy, between 15 October and 1 March (rivm.nl, voor wie is de griepprik, retrieved 2 October 2026). Dutch patient guidance gives the reasoning that the shot reduces the chance of both mother and baby becoming seriously ill from flu (thuisarts.nl, retrieved 2 October 2026).

In practice this runs through the people already looking after the pregnancy. RIVM says pregnant women get the shot at the consultatiebureau, make the appointment yourself, and that your verloskundige also discusses it with you (rivm.nl, griepprik tijdens de zwangerschap, retrieved 2 October 2026). Do not wait for a letter timed to the campaign rather than to your stage of pregnancy; our guide to pregnancy and maternity care sets out who does what in that chain.

Children: only a narrow group is invited

The Netherlands does not vaccinate healthy children against seasonal flu. The programme reaches children with a medical reason: RIVM’s list includes developmental and neuromuscular conditions as well as children aged six months to 18 years on long-term salicylate treatment (rivm.nl, voor wie is de griepprik, retrieved 2 October 2026).

If your child has a condition affecting muscles or nerves, the invitation should come from the GP practice in autumn. If it does not and you think it should, that is a call to the practice rather than a reason to look for a private clinic.

The part internationals get wrong: you need to be registered

Registering with a Dutch GP is not legally compulsory. Dutch patient guidance is explicit — “U bent niet verplicht om u in te schrijven bij een huisarts, maar dit wordt wel aangeraden” — because a regular doctor knows your situation and watches changes in your health over time (thuisarts.nl, inschrijven bij huisarts, retrieved 2 October 2026).

For the griepprik this matters because RIVM says the invitation comes from your huisarts or instellingsarts. The same guidance names the second thing you lose: with a GP you know where to go with health problems, and in the evening, at night or at the weekend you can go to the huisartsenpost.

Registration can be refused for reasons unconnected to you, including a practice having no room for new patients or your living too far away (thuisarts.nl, retrieved 2 October 2026).

Two practical points when you do register:

1. Bring or summarise your medical history, so your new practice knows about any condition that puts you in the target group.
2. Say it out loud at the intake. Ask whether your condition puts you in the griepprik target group, and ask for it to be noted.

If no invitation arrives and you think you qualify

RIVM’s instruction is short: if you belong to the target group and no invitation came, contact your GP to arrange the vaccination (rivm.nl, waar en wanneer, retrieved 2 October 2026). The same applies if you lost the letter.

Call early in the campaign. The programme’s ordering window for practices opened on 2 June 2026 and ran to and including 30 June (snpg.nl, retrieved 2 October 2026).

Delayed deliveries in 2026. SNPG reports that part of this year’s flu vaccine supply reaches practices later than usual because of a disruption in the international production chain. Main deliveries that were planned before 13 October are delayed, and deliveries planned for 13 October or later are not affected (snpg.nl, FAQ verlate levering griepvaccins, retrieved 2 October 2026). Your practice may therefore invite you later than in other years, and you may see a different date from a friend at another practice.

Outside the target group: possible, but you pay

Under 60 and without a medical indication, you can still get a flu shot after talking to your GP, for example to protect people you live with (rivm.nl, voor wie is de griepprik, retrieved 2 October 2026). That is a private arrangement: Dutch patient guidance describes the route for people outside the target group as asking a doctor for a prescription and then paying for the vaccine and its administration themselves (thuisarts.nl, ik denk na over de griepprik, retrieved 2 October 2026).

Your practice cannot use leftover national-programme vaccines on you: SNPG states that leftover vaccines may not be used for patients without an indication, nor sold on to third parties (snpg.nl, retrieved 2 October 2026). Thuisarts describes the paid route as a prescription from your GP, collecting the vaccine at the pharmacy and having it given at the practice (thuisarts.nl, retrieved 2 October 2026).

On price, we are not going to invent a figure. Costs are set by the provider, not nationally, and differ between a GP practice, a pharmacy, and a vaccination clinic. Ask for the total — vaccine plus administration — and whether they have stock at all. Your local apotheek is often the quickest place to get a straight answer.

Thuisarts says you pay for the vaccine and its administration yourself. If you have supplementary insurance, check your policy wording for vaccinations. For how the deductible works, see eigen risico.

The other autumn letter: pneumococcal vaccination

A second envelope is probably the pneumococcal programme, which runs on the same calendar and is easily confused with the flu shot.

RIVM states that people aged 60 and over are offered the vaccination free of charge through their GP practice or a care institution, but not everyone at the same time: each year a group of a specific age receives an invitation (rivm.nl, pneumokokkenvaccinatie op eigen verzoek, retrieved 2 October 2026).

For autumn 2026 RIVM names people born in 1966, who turn 60 this year, and people born in 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952, who are between 74 and 78 (rivm.nl, voor wie is de griepprik, retrieved 2 October 2026). Other age groups are invited in other years.

Without an invitation the pay-yourself route applies: RIVM says you can be vaccinated at your own request through a (huis)arts, a vaccination centre or the GGD, and advises asking your doctor first whether a vaccine is useful for you (rivm.nl, vaccinatie op eigen verzoek, retrieved 2 October 2026).

Getting the appointment right

• Go on the date and time in the letter. RIVM says the practice arranges that moment, for example with extra staff or a larger location; if it does not suit you, make a new appointment with your doctor.
• Bring valid ID, as you would for any other healthcare appointment.
• Ask about English when you phone if you need it.
• Ask what else you are due, the pneumococcal round for instance, while you are there.
• Travelling in winter? RIVM notes that a shot obtained abroad is at your own cost (rivm.nl, waar en wanneer, retrieved 2 October 2026).

For how the Dutch chain works beyond the GP, see the referral system explained.

Final thoughts

One action matters here, and it is not about the vaccine. Find out whether the practice holding your file knows about the condition that would put you in the target group, and if you have no Dutch practice at all, start the registration calls now. The rest follows automatically.

Outside the group, phone your practice or pharmacy in the first half of October and ask for the total price and whether they have stock. Both answers get worse the longer you leave it.

This article explains how the Dutch flu and pneumococcal vaccination programmes work and is not medical advice. Target groups, campaign timing and pneumococcal cohorts are taken from rivm.nl, the description of paying for a shot outside the target group and of GP registration from thuisarts.nl, programme rules for practices from snpg.nl, and all as retrieved on 2 October 2026 (the RIVM target-group page was last updated on 1 October 2026). Whether a vaccination suits you personally is a question for your own huisarts.