Health minister Edith Schippers is considering returning medically necessary plastic surgery to the basic health package, she told tv programme Radar on Tuesday evening.

Plastic surgery was removed in 2005 from what was then the national health service because there was too much abuse of the system. ‘The limits were gradually increased, with people too often using it to make themselves more beautiful,’ Schippers told the programme.

She is now prepared to reconsider the situation and called on doctors to come up with a water-tight plan for when plastic surgery should be reimbursed.

She said that plastic surgeons must take responsibility for decisions about which patients should have their plastic surgery paid for from their health insurance basic package so that the practice does not get out of hand again.