December 22, 2006: THE GLOBE AND MAIL

HAYLEY MICK

A Superior Court judge will assess a complaint today made by a group of people who say they've been unfairly blocked from a hospital's decision-making process.

At stake is the extent to which a hospital administration is accountable to the community it serves -- in this case, the working-class immigrant hub of Scarborough.

For years, Lai Chu, 63, and other locals have waged war on the elected members of the Scarborough Hospital board.

"They have not been accountable. They have not listened to the community. We are not going to go away because we believe what they are doing is almost a private club to themselves," said Ms. Chu, the plaintiff in the case that will be heard in Superior Court.

Hospital officials deny the criticisms.

However, Ms. Chu, who represents 44 community groups called the Coalition of Communities, says the problem came to a head at a Sept. 28 board meeting.

The board's approximately 120 corporate members were supposed to elect four new board members, she says. Instead, the elected board presented four candidates, sparking accusations that they had hand-picked their new colleagues.

Thus, the Community Coalition began a petition to have all 10 elected members removed. Seventy-seven members signed, including about 30 doctors -- far exceeding the 10 per cent required to force a vote.

The board fired back, saying the petition was void because the annual memberships of almost every person who signed had expired.

Since the Sept. 28 meeting, all of the memberships have expired except those belonging to the 10 elected members and 12 "honorary members," said Dr. Hugh Scott, the hospital's president and CEO.

"New applications won't be reviewed until the spring," Dr. Scott said. "This has always been our practice."

Today, Ms. Chu will ask the court to order the hospital to recognize the expired memberships -- as well as membership applications made before Sept. 28.

"And then we would vote the elected members out," Ms. Chu said. "That's the whole goal."

Dr. Scott would not discuss the legal case. But he said he has tried to meet Ms. Chu and other community members. He's happy to hear their concerns, he said, as long as they're about health-care services, not business.

"I'm available to meet any time, anywhere," he said in an interview on Wednesday. "They've said, 'Nope, we just want to talk about the corporation.' "

Mike Del Grande, the city councillor for Scarborough's Ward 39 who was elected to the board a year ago, also said several of his attempts to meet with coalition members have been rejected.

He said the elected members, all volunteers, are "well qualified." They include a university professor, a lawyer, an engineer and top officials from charities.

Dr. Robert Ting, a kidney specialist, says the hospital administration has "alienated" itself. "They keep making all these bad decisions and then there's an uproar and they have to retreat," he said.