Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday urged a state advisory council to approve the building of a new hospital for Maui to improve healthcare available on the island.

Lingle, a former Maui County mayor, said the proposed Malulani Health and Medical Center would bring substantial private sector investment in Valley Isle healthcare. She added it would give the island's only hospital, the state-subsidized Maui Memorial Medical Center, some welcome competition.

Maui Memorial "cannot deliver all the healthcare needed and desired by the people of Maui, and its ability to deliver will likely not increase in the near future," Lingle told the council members at a hearing.

Lingle's appearance was only the second before a state advisory body since she became governor four years ago.

Normally, the governor prefers to allow the state's roughly 140 advisory bodies to decide matters on their own. But Lingle said she felt so strongly Malulani should be allowed to serve Maui that she wanted to appear in person before the Statewide Health Coordinating Council.

The only other time she testified before a state board was when she urged the Aloha Stadium authority to give the University of Hawai'i a discount on its arena rent payments.

Lingle touted the $200 million investment that Malulani's mainland partner, Triad Hospital Corp., plans to make in the proposed 150-bed facility.

In contrast, she said the state wouldn't likely be able to invest substantial money in Maui Memorial because state revenues were unlikely to continue to climb dramatically as they have in recent years. She further indicated available state revenue would be consumed in paying the salaries of public school teachers and other government workers.

She dismissed the argument that allowing Malulani to operate would hurt medical care on Maui by taking business away from Maui Memorial.

Lingle said this argument reminded her of Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines fighting the entry of a new carrier, go!, to the interisland market.

"It's the same argument again: let's keep the service poor with not as many routes with higher cost. Because if you give us more competition with better service and lower cost, it might hurt the existing two," Lingle told reporters after giving her testimony. "It's a recurring argument made to support monopolies. A monopoly by definition is not going to provide you the best service at the lowest cost."

Wesley Lo, head of Maui Memorial, said it wasn't right to compare a hospital that takes care of people's health with the airline business.

"I don't think you can even make that comparison with the complexity of the services provided," Lo said.

The Statewide Health Coordinating Council will meet on Thursday to resume its consideration of Malulani's application.

Two other advisory panels split their verdicts: the Tri-isle Subarea Planning Council approved the hospital earlier this month. The Certificate of Need Review Panel rejected the application on Monday.

Dr. David Sakamoto, administrator for the State Health Planning and Development Agency, will make the final decision.

Lingle appoints the agency administrator, but she doesn't have the power to veto his decisions.