Labour leader Diederik Samsom has slammed health insurance companies for wrapping home nursing services in so much red tape there is little time for actual work.

In an opinion piece in Thursday’s NRC, Samsom says health insurance companies are so keen to avoid risk they are damaging patient services. In particular, the demand that all patients be re-assessed by May 1 needs to be dropped, he said.

‘District nurses are being squeezed,’ he said. ‘They have to deal with too many rules and regulations. Trust in people’s professionalism. They know what is right and that is what benefits patients.’

Samsom has been following the work of a team of district nurses in Spijkenisse since the beginning of the year when new rules were introduced. Home nursing is now organised by local councils and paid for by health insurance companies.

The reforms, says Samsom, are good in principle. However, ‘nurses are now running around with checklists,’ he said. Health insurers have to ‘stop worrying that budgets will be over-run’.