The existing members of the Union Hospital District Board of Trustees will remain the same — at least for now.

Union County Council voted — following executive session — Tuesday to extend the terms of four of those hospital district board members whose seats are up for reappointment at the end of the month. The terms of hospital district board members Jeff Cannon, Dr. Chris McWhorter, Dr. Robert Yannetti and chairman Tim Svedlund expire March 31.

The issue at the center of the council’s decision is the fact that two of those seats up for reappointment are filled with employees of the district — a conflict of interest according to the existing law defining the make of the hospital district board originally penned in 1946.

Council members voted last month to seek a change to the law in regard to the make up of the hospital board to resolve the issue and directed the local state legislative delegation to move forward. Council members agreed upping the number of seats on the hospital district board to 10 — with three of those seats being held by ex-officio physicians rather than voting board members — would be the best way to resolve the conflict of interest issue.

However, even though it was hoped the law could be changed by the end of this month it’s not looking like that will be the case.

“It’s kind of like no news is good news,” said Supervisor Tommy Sinclair, adding the county was given a two week time line to get the law changed but hasn’t heard anything about the progress on the issue in Columbia.

Sinclair said it has to go through several readings before a new or changed law can be adopted and, at the moment, there are several other pressing matters the state legislature is dealing with. The county is patiently waiting to hear back on the issue.

Once the law is changed at the state level, it must be adopted at the county level — a process that requires at least three readings to adopt the new ordinance. The county also is required to wait at least seven days between two of those readings.

Taking all of that into consideration, changing the hospital board’s makeup will not be possible before the end of the month. Sinclair said county council members recognize the extension of the existing board — including those two hospital district employees’ terms — is a continuation of violating the existing law, but agreed it doesn’t make sense to appoint new people now and then again in another 90 days.

A letter was sent Wednesday to each of the four hospital district board members whose terms run out at the end of this month asking them to stay in their seats until the issue was resolved.

The council also voted to advertise for the anticipated openings on the hospital district board and also is asking current board members not to make any major management changes during this “lame duck” period.

Sinclair said council members’ consensus was if that is something the hospital district wants to discuss — not suggesting it should or shouldn’t — it might be a good idea to allow a new board to handle those matters.

In a related matter, Dr. David Keith, chief of medical staff at Wallace Thomson Hospital, came to the council meeting Tuesday representing the Union County Medical Society to express the desire of the medical staff to work with the county to find the best way for physicians to continue playing a role on a new hospital district board.

Two letters were recently sent out to about 30 members of the medical staff, current and retired — one outlining how physicians will be a part of a new board and the other recommending keeping the board’s makeup the same — asking them to vote for which option they thought made the most sense.

Keith reported he received nine letters back expressing a willingness to go with the proposed new form of the board and five voting to continue the existing board makeup.

So it looks as if the medical staff is willing to work together to make the new board work, but there are some things they would like to be involved in when it comes to how the board is comprised.

Keith said one of the most important things medical staff members would like is to be involved in the nomination and selection process of hospital board members. They would like to be able to review the candidates for open seats and make sure there are no situations of conflict of interest.

“I think that’s the most important part of this,” Keith said.

They also want to make sure those three ex-officio members from the medical staff continue to be physicians and would like the ability to bring in another physician in if a situation demands. Who those three ex-officio members will be is up for negotiation.

Whatever decisions are made, Keith said people will look back on the work of people in Union County to resolve this issue and move forward.

“This is the first time in 64 years the law is likely to be changed,” he said.

Keith added everyone needs to work together to make the hospital board the best it can be. Sinclair — who has had the opportunity to talk with nearly every doctor at Wallace Thomson — agreed and recognized the amount of time the medical staff has invested in making sure this issue will work out in the end.