The Health Ministry has hit out at a comment made by the President of the Fiji College of General Practitioners in a daily yesterday, that all general outpatients department at major hospitals in the country should be closed.

Dr Ram Raju is quoted as saying that the government was always short of man power and should concentrate on accidents and emergencies in major centres while all outpatients would then go to general practitioners.

However, the comment did not go down well with the Health Ministry as spokesperson Iliesa Tora said that the General Outpatients Department is mostly used by the grass root level people.

He said where will these people go if these departments are closed?