some one elses religuious beliefs should not impact on my medical care.

Whether it is "fixed" by a referral to someone else is irrelevant. It still means time wasted , yet another fricken appointment , yet someone else poking around.

Hey, someone elses religous beliefs led them to raise a ton of money to build the fricken hospital in the first place! Hospitals, the actual physical buildings and the equipment within are not funded by the government here, that comes from private fundraising. OHIP pays only for some basics and the people working there.

So, if you dont like it, find a different hospital!

The Canada we know now, especially in Ontario and Quebec, has a long history of connections to catholic institutions and organisations. Its not necessarily a bad idea for newcommers to canada to get a handle on, it explains a few things!

Im not sure though why a GP or family doctor would have sent you to a catholic hospital for the kind of procedure that they wont do. Someone seems to have screwed up.

Hear, hear. I googled and found something called the Catholic Health Corporation of Ontario. It seems to provide charitable support to a few selected hospitals. They're welcome to do that, but not to dictate whether an OHIP approved procedure should or should not be offered.
Twats.

They are not dictating anything, they are free to donate funds as they see fit, and it seems a safe bet that if they donate them to hospitals that will not for example perform abortions then they will not be putting themselves in conflict with the people that they are ultimately raising funds from.

Frankly to call any group that is providing or funding public hospital services "twats" is pretty dispicable, you have gone down in my estimation.

Is that also your case for slavery and racial discrimination?

I personally think "as they see fit" doesn't mean "with ideological strings attached".

They don't though. There are 8 private hospitals (out of 220 or so) in Ontario which were allowed to continue to exist under a grandfather clause in the 1973 Hospitals Act. Five of these are supported in part by the CHCO, but all of them receive their operating budgets from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

"Twats" rather understates the case. Private money should not be allowed to dictate the policies of public institutions.

I wouldn't go as far as using derogatory terms but in my opinon a medical institute that receives public funding in any form , should not be able to refuse to carry out a medically justified and as far as I'm concerned non contentious medical procedure.

We may have to agree to disagree on this one

It's important though, influencing the flow of money is how the nutters were able to make abortion effectively unavailable in some States.

Canada wasnt exactly a hot bed for slavery compared to other colonies, but it was there, but quite why you bring it up in this context escapes me.

All Im saying is that a lot of what we see in modern canadian society (schooling, hospital provision etc) can be traced at least in part back to the strength of some of the catholic organisations in the past.

Im not defending it, Im neither for or against it, Im just saying that if you understand that history, some of the more canadian things make a little more sense. If you come to a country to live, sometimes learning a bit of its history isnt a bad idea.

You really would appear to be happy to cut off your nose to spite your face.

Historically speaking the catholic founded hospitals were operating (with the restrictions) long before OHIP and public funding. OHIP is introduced, all of a sudden the government will pay for treatment, but where are they going to treat all these people now?

Perhaps you would rather that the government had spend billions on new hospitals to meet demand rather then use the existing facilties? So, there is a restriction on these catholic founded and paid for hospitals performing procedures at odds with the belief of the people that paid to build them in the first place? I dont care, Ill go to one of the other hospitals if that happens to affect me directly. I would think that 99% of the time it doesnt matter. I'm just surprised that anyone would be sent to one for a consult on something they wont do.

Maybe you should get cards made up requesting that in the event of an emergency you not be taken to one of the catholic founded hospitals should it be nearest, Im sure you wouldnt like to have to compromise on your moral outrage after all.


Lets put it another way. So the catholic hospitals wont do abortions (for example). If I want an abortion I simply dont go to the catholic hospital.

If I have a serious head injury I wont get treatment at Trenton Memorial, I'll get sent to Belleville or Kingston that deal with those proceedures. If I want an ingrown toenail removed I dont go to a neurosurgeon. Maybe we should all be up in arms that neurosurgeons receive OHIP money, after all they wont do anything but neurosurgery

Evils of the past. The defence of Catholicism stands as well for slavery.

Building all those hospitals, what a bunch of bastards eh

If you just want to pick on the negative aspects of any subject the world can seem a pretty grim place I guess.

Obviously I wouldn't go to a Catholic hospital any more than a Catholic school but that's not what the argument's about. The objection is to the undue influence of a crackpot minority on the use of public funds. If an institution receives public money, even 1% public money, it has no business altering treatment to align with the eccentric beliefs of the minority also partially funding the institution. If abortion or in vitrio fertilization is offered under the state medical scheme then the only valid reasons for not offering at all hospitals are medical and administrative ones.

I suppose, however Catholicism has an evil history and an evil present. No good accrues to world by enriching the Pope nor by tolerating paedophilia. It may not be possible to stamp it out but states have no business legitimising it.