BRUNSWICK

A vocal crowd of about 60 people gathered in Mid Coast Hospital’s cafeteria Monday, some to criticize and others to support the hospital group’s proposed merger with Parkview Adventist Medical Center.

Mid Coast admnistrators and board members hosted the session, calling it a “community forum” and hoping to quell controversy surrounding its proposed consolidation.

The proposal does have its fans, and several spoke encouragingly of the benefits of a union between the two community hospitals.

However, numerous advocates for Parkview derided the forum and said the two Brunswick hospitals are riven by years of mistrust and competition, which they said began when two clinics — one in Bath and one in Brunswick — combined to become the modern Mid Coast.

“I don’t like the conflict, the nastiness, the Chicken Little ‘sky is falling,’” said Linda Cronkhite, a longtime Parkview customer. “Why would Parkview ever trust Mid Coast? Don’t say you want to ‘collaborate’ when what you really mean is ‘extinguish.’”

Lois Skillings, president and chief executive officer of Mid Coast Health Services told those gathered that her attempts at talking with Parkview’s board of directors had been thwarted by officials at Central Maine Health Services, the umbrella group that operates Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

“This is a new conversation,” she said. “But we can’t have that discussion if Parkview is controlled by CMHC.”

Central Maine Health Services already manages Parkview, and many of Parkview’s medical staffers come directly from the Lewiston hospital.

Central Maine Health Services filed a proposal with the state Department of Health and Human Services in late August to permanently take over operations and management at Parkview.

Mid Coast also filed a proposal with the state in September, arguing that the Bath- Brunswick community would better be served by having both hospitals under the same local management.

Officials at DHHS’s Licensing and Regulatory Division are weighing the competing proposals.

Meanwhile, Mid Coast and Parkview are waging an advertising war in the pages of several local newspapers, including The Times Record. In last Tuesday’s edition, a half-page ad from Mid Coast encouraged residents to attend that evening’s forum.

Monday’s edition, however, carried another half-page ad from Parkview imploring people not to go, not to believe Mid Coast’s claims and to attend another public hearing next week instead.

That hearing, scheduled by DHHS, is set for 10 a.m. Oct. 24 at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Columbus Drive.