Health insurers’ plans to reduce the number of accident and emergency departments at Dutch hospitals will cut patient choice and may conflict with competition law, the Dutch consumers authority ACM said on Wednesday.

Health insurers want emergency care to be concentrated at specialised hospitals on a region by region basis, which they say will improve services and boost efficiency.

While some hospitals and medical specialists accept the advantages of concentrating services, others say hospitals which lose A&E departments will have reduced services and the quality of their care will deteriorate.

In addition, by working together to decide which A&E departments should be covered by insurance, the insurers are reducing patient choice, the ACM said.

Patient groups and the Dutch hospitals’ association have also criticised the plans, which were leaked earlier this year.

Insurers have also been given the go-ahead by the health minister to draw up a new form of insurance policy which limits treatment to insurer-approved suppliers.