Sarasota Memorial Hospital Board candidates forum set for July 11

For the first time, the League of Women Voters of Sarasota County will hold a Sarasota Memorial Hospital Board candidates forum July 11.

In prior years, hospital board races did not generate a great deal of interest from the general public. In 2022, only 26% of voters participated in the hospital board elections, the league notes. 

That changed after the COVID-19 pandemic when disagreements over controversial treatments and cautious hospital policies prompted conservatives to back candidates for the board, which has financial, quality and management oversight of the Sarasota Memorial Hospital community health care system, which treats 1.5 million people per year and employs 9,000 people.

The league noticed intense interest in the hospital board races when more than 100 citizens attended its “Understanding the Issues” forum in April, according to a news release. Many attendees expressed their desire to hear directly from the hospital board candidates prior to the primary election, set for Aug. 20.

The candidates’ forum will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. July 11 at the Jacaranda Library. The forum will be followed by a 30-minute candidate meet and greet for those attending in person. Registration is required and will be open on the league’s website after the June 14 deadline for candidates to qualify.

Nine Republican candidates are running for the four open seats on the nine-member board. Three of those seats are closed primaries. One seat has only Republicans running, making it a universal primary and final election for that seat, unless a Democrat or a nonaffiliated candidate enters the race.

Three Republican candidates for the board, Kendra Becker-Musante, Tanya Parus, and Mary Flynn O'Neill, the sister of Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, are running on what they call a “Medical Freedom” ticket, “championing patient autonomy and advocating for patient centered healthcare choices,” according to their shared website.