Chairmans Acid Retort

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 61, 12 March 1941, Page 6

Chairmans Acid Retort

Per Press association.

AUCKLAND, March 11,

Replying to Mr. Nordmeyer, Mr. Moody (Auckland Hospital chairman) said: “Unlike certain Cabinet Ministers I wish to state that I have neither the time nor the inclination to suik when I do not get my way or when I am not capable of making up my mind on a definite courso of action. I have not yet received official advice whether the remaining members of the Hospital Boards Association executive have, as stated, made satisfactory arrangements with the Government and personally 1 would prefer to wait until I have this statement from the association itself, because I do not intend to accept the Minister’s bald and, to my mind, unconvincing statement. It may be that this statement is as accurate as his remarks concerning the general body of medical practitioners accepting the Government’s medical benefits plan. “The threat to require the Auckland Hospital Board to refund any outpatients’ service fees is, of course, a matter of responsibility of the Government or the Minister who will act quite Wrongly, I think, in making the board do something which is contrary to commonscnsc methods.

“Instead of the Minister wasting his time dealing with this type of regulation, why does he not get on with the job, and if he has that conviction which he alleges he has, let him bring the necessary regulation into effect to compel hospital boards to give their outpatients treatment free. If this is done then the board can act in full compliance with the law and not risk having its actions questioned by its auditor.

“Once ago In, I do object to the Minister or his department attempting to use the Hospital Boards Association as a means of ‘implementing’ the full policy of the Government.”