A special general meeting of members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the McLaren Vale hospital board on Tuesday 4 July but legal action may delay a decision on the future of the hospital site.

The 21-bed McLaren Vale & District War Memorial Hospital closed on 30 June after the board determined it was not financially viable to keep it open.

Other services on the site remain open, including the op shop staffed by volunteers and the Wellbeing GP Clinic.

The board has proposed a merger with the James Brown Memorial Trust, which operates not-for-profit aged care provider Kalyra.

A group of McLaren Vale residents has been campaigning against the merger, objecting to ‘handing over’ a community asset.

A special general meeting of hospital members held on 5 May fell just short of the 75 per cent vote required to approve the merger. At that stage there were 65 hospital members.

A membership drive raised the number of eligible voters at the 4 July meeting to 967, according to chair Chris Overland, with around 300 to 400 people attending in person.

The provisional results of the Special General Meeting vote were:

Resolution 1: Vacation of all Board positions - Yes: 18 per cent; No: 82 per cent.

Resolution 2: Merger with the James Brown Memorial Trust - Yes: 86 per cent No: 14 per cent.

Mr Overland says the board will now negotiate with the James Brown Trust on how the merger will work.

“We are going ahead as planned,” he says.

Kalyra has committed to maintaining all the services currently operating from the site, except for the hospital itself.

Opponents of the proposed merger have lodged a legal challenge in the Magistrates Court, challenging the validity of the vote.