Investors in a proposed Cape Girardeau ambulatory surgery center withdrew their application moments before the Certificate of Need hearing in Jefferson City last week.

The proposed $5.6 million Mississippi Valley Surgery Center had been at the center of heated debate in recent months.

The investors should be commended for withdrawing the application at this time. It was no doubt a difficult decision.

But Cape Girardeau is in the midst of a complicated merger of Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center. It is far from a done deal. State and federal approval is promising, but not certain.

The surgery center proposal was muddying the waters and might have hurt the mergers efforts. The application was ill-timed.

It was withdrawn "without prejudice," meaning that it can be refiled for state approval. That is their right.

At that time, the public debate should center on need and cost -- not quality of care. Cape Girardeau medical facilities and surgeons are undeniably the best in the region.

Once the hospital merger is resolved, consumers, the medical community and state can discuss the need for such a center on its own merits.