EMPHATIC DENIAL BY LABOUR CHIEF

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23218, 1 April 1950, Page 6

EMPHATIC DENIAL BY LABOUR CHIEF

tP.A.) WELLINGTON, March 31. “Wholly and completely incorrect — without any foundation in fact and a pure invention,” was the description given yesterday by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. p. Fraser, to the statement by the Minister of Health, Mr. J. T. Watts, that the Labour Government had carried out a policy of closing down private maternity hospitals to the point where there was not enough maternity accommodation for the mothers of Christchurch. On no occasion did the Labour Government. or any Labour Minister of Health, or any officer of the Health Department during Labour’s term of office carry out, either directly or by implicatin, and policy to close down private maternity hospitals,” said Mr. Fraser. “On the contrary, under the Labour Government for the first time, private maternity hospitals received hospital benefits.” Mr, Fraser said that there certainly was some control of the pi’ices to be charged by those hospitals as a condition of their receiving the benefits. On that matter the respective Labour Ministers had arrived at their decisions after receiving the advice of departmental officers who had taken all the facts into consideration.