State OKs York County cancer center

AUGUSTA – York County Cancer Care Center’s proposal to build a treatment center in Wells has been chosen, with conditions, over a competing plan, Human Services Commissioner Kevin Concannon announced Tuesday.

Concannon said the proposal by Maine Medical Center in Portland and Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford was chosen for “compelling” reasons.

An advisory board had lined up in support of the second proposal, which had been offered by York Hospital, Goodall Hospital in Sanford and Wentworth-Douglass Hospital of Dover, N.H. But the Human Services staff favored the plan by Maine Medical and Southern Maine Medical.

Among the reasons the latter proposal was chosen for a certificate of need, said Concannon, is that it would allow any qualified doctor or medical or radiation oncologist to practice or refer patients to the center.

That would provide access to all York County patients and doctors, regardless of what hospital system they choose for treatment, he said.

Concannon also noted that the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer has accredited both Maine Medical and Southern Maine Medical as multidisciplinary cancer programs.

Only one of the three hospitals in the competing collaborative – Wentworth-Douglass – is accredited by the surgeons’ commission, Concannon said.

The commissioner said that Maine Medical is accredited as a teaching hospital cancer program, and that the winning proposal offers more comprehensive services.

Licensing was also a factor in choosing the MMC-SMMC proposal over the York County Collaborative, Concannon said.

While SMMC and MMC are licensed with no deficiencies by the state of Maine, Goodall operates under a conditional license and Wentworth-Douglass is located in New Hampshire and is not subject to licensing by Maine.