THE Northern Territory government is accusing the Commonwealth of grandstanding by demanding that it returns more than $18 million in allegedly misused funds. Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek sent a letter to the media intended for NT Health Minister Robyn Lambley, which Ms Lambley has labelled a pre-election stunt. Ms Plibersek's letter, sent on Monday, demands the NT return by the end of August more than $18 million of Commonwealth health funding which was provided to build a 100-bed "medi-hotel" at Royal Darwin Hospital for the accommodation of bush patients needing treatment. Instead, the facility is being used to house patients of the Country Liberal Party-led NT government's controversial mandatory alcohol rehabilitation scheme. Under the new law, if a person is picked up by police three times in a three-month period for drunk and disorderly behaviour, they can be forced into the treatment program for up to twelve weeks. Ms Plibersek told reporters in Sydney on Monday that she gave the NT government "many months" to explain why the facility was being used to "lock up alcoholics" instead of caring for patients needing surgery. "The Northern Territory government have refused to do that," she said. Her letter stated that the NT government "has unilaterally decided to use the facility for a purpose other than the one for which it was funded and built." But Ms Lambley has slammed the letter as a politically-motivated attack. "Tanya Plibersek's grandstanding isn't about what's best for the Territory, it's about what's best for the federal Labor Party weeks out from an election," she said. The use of the medi-hotel as an alcohol rehabilitation facility is not inconsistent with the intended purpose of the building to provide medical treatment to sick Territorians. Ms Lambley said the facility is being used for 18 months to hold alcoholics on the program, until alternative facilities are built. She said the NT "has no intention of repaying the money" because the federal government would ultimately return it to the Territory in other health funding. If forced to pay, the mandatory treatment centre would stay where it is because the NT government would not be able to afford another site, Ms Lambley said. In previous discussions, Ms Plibersek had appeared open to the idea of using the medi-hotel for alcohol treatment, she said, "but as the election has drawn nearer she has adopted a more combative stance." Ms Plibersek wants the money returned to the health and hospitals fund so it could be used for health priorities in Darwin and Palmerston.