Labour Party will not investigate advt

Press, 27 September 1983, Page 9

Labour Party will not investigate advt

No action will be taken on a complaint by Christchurch hospital staff about a Labour Party campaign advertisement for the local body elections.

The chairman of the Christchurch Hospitals’ Medical Staff Association, Dr D. R. Hay, said yesterday that the advertisement, which appeared in city suburban newspapers, had insulted many staff members. It should be withdrawn because it was inaccurate.

“Many specialists give only a little of their time to the hospital that pays them,” the advertisement said. “They work instead to build up lucrative private practices. As a result, costly

plant and staff lie idle.” The Canterbury regional secretary of the Labour Party, Mr Ron Simpson, said he had received no official complaint from Dr Hay. “The thing is not going to be investigated,” he said.

He also believed that the information used by the committee which compiled the advertisement was accurate. It would run again in suburban newspapers before the local body elections.

Dr Hay said the system of employing full-time for part-time specialists worked well. University staff received half their salary from Otago University and the remainder from the

North Canterbury Hospital Board for their service duties.

“Costly staff and plant are not lying idle,” he said. Instead, operating theatres were working to capacity.

Another statement in the advertisement, “Labour policy will insist on fulltime work from full-time staff,” was just as insulting, implying that full-time staff were not meeting their work obligations, said Dr Hay.

He said that other medial staff shared his views. complaint had nothing to do with his wife, Dr Jocelyn Hay, standing for the Hospital Board as a Citizens’ Association candidate.