Insurance companies should be more choosy about paying for visits to hospital accident and emergency departments, because only emergency care is covered, says health minister Edith Schippers.

Schippers has abandoned plans to introduce a €50 fee for non-essential A&E visits but wants health insurers to scrutinise bills more closely. This means, says the Telegraaf, someone who turns up at a hospital with a splinter in their finger should not have the cost of their treatment refunded.

Treatment in an A&E department is only covered by insurance in emergency situations. Instead hospitals should work together more closely with family doctors to provide help with minor injuries, Schippers told parliament on Thursday evening.

A spokesman for the opposition Christian Democrats told the Telegraaf the get-tough policy will deliver far more savings than the A&E fee – which was put at €24m a year. Nevertheless, the party condemned the fact that ‘insurers would appear to have been wrongly paying bills for years’.