By KATHERINE PETERSEN
More than 400 residents, doctors and medical staff attended a community meeting Feb. 7 held by the El Camino Hospital District Board to hear about the board's plans for the hospital.
The district board is suing Camino Healthcare, which controls hospital operations, to void the 1992 contract that transferred the hospital from a public entity to a private nonprofit corporation.
If the hospital continues to operate as is, members of the board fear it will fail because of dramatic financial losses. Board members also said that only an abridged version of a second legal opinion concerning the contract was withheld from the 1992 district board.
Many residents of the district, which includes Los Altos, Mountain View and half of Sunnyvale, said their main concern was getting the hospital back. Others expressed concern that board members "did not have ready answers" to questions.
"We didn't have a chance to vote on the de-districting. Some-body's just run away with something," said Patty Groves, a Sunnyvale resident.
Los Altos resident Jackie Rusch agreed, adding that she doesn't know how the previous board let itself get "pushed into making that decision."
The League of Women Voters will hold another public forum on the issue Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Mountain View City Council Chambers, 500 Castro St.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 14, 1996.
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