TORONTO - Ontario is committed to letting community members help govern hospitals despite a number of power struggles across the province that have forced the government to intervene, Health Minister George Smitherman said Thursday.

The latest hospital to need a government-appointed supervisor is Toronto's Scarborough Hospital, where community members have been fighting to replace the board of directors.

Smitherman said he waited as long as he could before stepping in, but it became obvious the community and hospital officials could not settle their differences.

"There's been a lot of discontent over a period of time - legal action, community unrest - and none of this bodes too well given the very, very important and essential role that hospital plays,'' Smitherman said.

"I felt it was time to step in and restore some stability.''

A supervisor will be appointed within a week or two, he added.

Smitherman said he's encouraged by the level of interest people are taking in their hospitals, but warned such enthusiasm must be tempered with due diligence in picking the right people for the job and letting them deal with the complexities of the operation.

"It's really important that we understand these are multi-hundred-million-dollar operations and accordingly we have strong obligations to make sure the people doing the work of giving direction and making decisions . . . are very dedicated to fulfilling their responsibilities.''

Similar struggles have occurred in Alliston, Orillia and Sarnia, where community members rallied to oppose hospital decisions and change the board of directors or administration.

Ontario is the last province in Canada to run its hospitals with a volunteer-based board of directors and community representation, but it's still the best option, Smitherman said, even if it means there may always be five or six communities where local issues boil over.

"Community governance is good for the hospital and health-care sector in Ontario - I believe that strenuously,'' he said.

The Ontario Hospital Association also endorses a community-based model to help run hospitals, even if it means conflict is inevitable.

"From time to time there's going to be a diversity of opinion, and you know there's going to be disagreement over tough complex issues,'' said Anthony Dale, the OHA's vice-president of policy and public affairs.

"But we think it's a fundamental strength of Ontario's hospital system and health-care system.''

Hugh Scott, CEO of Scarborough Hospital, said the government will continue to face problems across the province if it allows the public to meddle with complex decision-making at hospitals.

He said the public must be a key stakeholder in helping shape a hospital's future, but community members shouldn't be allowed to organize and dictate policies.

At Scarborough Hospital, any Canadian citizen over the age of 21 can pay $25 and become a voting member of the corporation.

A few years ago, a group of 118 community members got enough sway to control votes on key matters and sought to oust the existing the board of directors, Scott said.

"With 118 votes and an investment of something like $2,950, they took control of a $327-million corporation,'' he said.

"I think it's a serious flaw. I don't think it should be possible for any interest group to take control of a public corporation.''

He claimed the community group was demanding the hospital go against the orders of the provincial government, which has told hospital administrators they cannot run a deficit.

"Community groups have said, `We don't want anything changed, you should have never signed that, you should have told the minister to go away,''' Scott said.

"We didn't think that was the appropriate approach.''

Each hospital has its own system of giving the public input and control of operations, and those policies vary widely across the province, Dale said.

Smitherman said the last thing he wants to do is standardize a set of rules for the province's 154 hospitals.

"I think the word standardization is a very difficult concept because it sometimes is going to eliminate our recognition that Ontario is very different,'' he said.

"I think (with) our community-governance models there are surely opportunities that we must look to toward some refinement, but I am very, very cautious in my approach to these matters.''