"The West Coast Health Care Board has been directed by Health Minister Elizabeth Marshall to reduce their budget by $8 million," said Jones. "This reduction in services will affect the entire West Coast and cannot be tolerated.

"It has been brought to my attention that, to achieve savings for the Board, surgery and obstetric services at the Stephenville hospital will be closed, turning this new, state-of-the-art facility, into a 25 bed clinic. It makes no sense to mothball a brand new facility that was built to provide first-rate health care services to the south-west coast.

Ms. Jones believes that the loss of strong representation by area MHAs is the cause of these services being in jeopardy.

"Sources tell me that Jim Hodder and Minister Burke have no influence on the decision-making process when it comes to Stephenville health care services. This hospital was built due to strong representation made by Liberal MHAs over the past ten years.

"MHAs are responsible to their constituents, not political agendas. Unless Minister Burke and Mr. Hodder publicly denounce the attempts by the PC Government to eliminate services at the Stephenville hospital, government will proceed without abandon, targeting other services important to rural areas."