The Hoke County Board of Commissioners has apparently taken sides in the ongoing battle between FirstHealth of the Carolinas and Cape Fear Valley Health System over whose hospital plan best meets the need of county residents.

On Tuesday, the five-member board unanimously approved a resolution asking Fayetteville-based Cape Fear Valley to drop its legal appeals against Pinehurst-based FirstHealth.

The state has approved plans by each health system to build hospitals near Raeford, and both have used legal appeals to block the other from starting construction.

FirstHealth CEO Charles T. Frock applauded Hoke commissioners for adopting the resolution.

“FirstHealth has directly and consistently recommended a solution that both hospitals drop all appeals so both can begin building with the state’s support,” Frock said today in a statement. “Hoke citizens shouldn’t have to wait any longer for a hospital to be built in their county.”

Frock said FirstHealth is ready to build, even if Cape Fear Valley also begins construction.

“We support the availability of choice and competition in health care services,” he said. “The ball is in Cape Fear’s court and has been for months.”

Cape Fear Valley is “not necessarily opposed” to a two-hospital solution, CEO Mike Nagowski said.

“However, we do not feel that FirstHealth’s eight-bed hospital is the right solution for Hoke County,” Nagowski said today in a statement. “There are just too many questions that need answering.”

For more on this story, see the print edition of The Pilot.