PORTLAND (AP) – H.D. Goodall Hospital in Sanford has agreed to partner with Maine Medical Center and Southern Maine Medical Center to build a cancer care center in York County, hospital officials announced Tuesday.

Goodall had been a competitor against the Portland and Biddeford hospitals in the bid to build the Cancer Care Center of York County. The plan now calls for the facility to be built on a 10-acre parcel on Route 109 in Sanford for which Goodall holds an option.

The decision was announced a day after the Wells Planning Board approved an application by MMC and SMMC to build the center on Route 1. Vincent Conti, president of Maine Medical Center, said the planning board decision could be appealed in court and had enough conditions attached to it to cause further delay.

“Given the uncertainty arising from the ongoing opposition of York Hospital, we decided some months ago that it would be prudent to have a backup plan in case we were blocked from building the center in the town of Wells,” he said. “Even with Wells Planning Board approval, we are concerned about the potential for still more legal challenges and resultant delays, and we are not willing to allow the people of York County to be held hostage to this process any longer.

“Therefore, we are exercising our backup plan.”

MMC and SMMC first proposed a cancer center two years ago. At the same time, York Hospital, Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, N.H., and Goodall also formed a partnership in seeking state approval for a cancer center – meaning the two groups had to compete for a certificate of need.

MMC and SMMC won the competition in February 2003, and the smaller hospitals filed an appeal. The project went nowhere for more than a year while the hospitals fought in court.

After York Hospital and its partners lost an appeal in April of 2003, they filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s decision, which the Maine Supreme Court is expected to hear this fall. Goodall did not take part in the lawsuit.

Bob Hardison, chairman of the Goodall board of directors, said the hospital decided to join with MMC and SMMC after determining that fighting them was not a winnable strategy.

“Very fundamentally, the issue has been decided and the cancer care center is going to be built by Maine Medical Center and Southern Maine Medical Center,” he said.

The switch drew an angry written response from York Hospital President Jud Knox.

“It is obvious to us that the Cancer Care Center of York County is less about doing what is right for patients and more about doing what is right for the Medical Centers,” he wrote.

Officials at MMC and SMMC said they hope to have the center running by January of 2006. They also said they would still be willing to include York Hospital as a partner.

AP-ES-08-11-04 0217EDT