Premier Ewart Brown delivered a spirited rebuke to an Opposition Minister who condemned the closure of a Government-funded clinic for the needy.

He accused Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson of "a campaign rooted in misinformation, skulduggery and outright lies" over the Medical Clinic during a speech in Parliament.

However, Mrs. Jackson hit back yesterday, saying: "Some people will have found his performance frightening, but if he thinks he can intimidate me into silence, he should think again."

The Medical Clinic provides free transport, prescriptions and medical supplies for elderly, homeless and mentally ill patients. They also have access to X-rays and MRI equipment.

The closure of the facility, formerly known as the "Indigent Care" clinic at the hospital was announced in the Throne Speech last year, with Government saying it undermined patients' dignity. Dr. Brown has said that under the new plans, they will have access to the same services in six private doctor's offices. However, a crowd protesting against the closure marched on Parliament on March 7, accusing him of failing to consult the public over the move.

Launching an impassioned response to the protests during the closing minutes of a marathon session of Parliament in the early hours of Saturday, Dr. Brown accused Mrs. Jackson of being "ignorant of the facts".

He said of the campaign to keep the clinic open: "It's important to understand what happens to people in a welfare state. I have lived in the US and seen what happens when people have their entrepreneurial spirits and ability to self-sustain taken away from them because the state came in to provide for them. We don't want that and we are not going to have that in Bermuda."

Mrs. Jackson has alleged that Dr. Brown does not have a plan to replace the facility and "he's making it up as he goes along".

But the Premier said nothing could be further from the truth.

"This Government would never embark on the closure of a medical service to the detriment of the people," he said. "When we are talking about closing this clinic, the ultimate plan — and it will be delivered — is to give people superior healthcare."

Dr. Brown accused the Opposition of using the patients at the clinic for political points-scoring and told Mrs. Jackson she should "stop, cease and desist from misinforming the public and trying to create panic when there's no need for it".

Of concerns over transportation to the replacement healthcare providers, Dr. Brown said the same arrangements currently in place would continue.

"Let me assure the people of Bermuda that if I have to drive them to a clinic myself, they will not be without appropriate care," he said. "They will have access to doctors like they have never had it before."

Mrs. Jackson responded yesterday by saying: "The difference between his understanding of the problem and mine is that I am listening to the hundreds of people whose quality of life he is about to damage severely by closing the clinic, and he is not. He doesn't seem to care what they think or what they want, and he is angry at me — name-calling, even — because he doesn't want me shouting facts from the rooftops that contradict the story he's telling."

Mrs. Jackson said of the clinic's users: "They would be perfectly willing for the clinic to be closed down if it was going to be replaced by something better. But Dr. Brown has no such idea in his head, or he'd have told us about it long before now."