After months of debate, it's been decided that the hospital in Humboldt, Sask. will switch from being Catholic-run to publicly run.

The St. Elizabeth's Hospital board and the Saskatoon Regional Health Authority announced Wednesday that Health Minister Len Taylor has agreed with their recommendation that the new hospital planned for the town would be run by the health authority.

The plan will also place the existing St. Elizabeth's Hospital, now owned by the Saskatchewan Catholic Health Corp., under public control by the end of 2007.
Construction on the new hospital is expected to begin this spring.

"The transition will have to start almost immediately," said Darlene Eberle, chair of the Saskatoon Regional Health Authority.

The hospital and health district polled 977 people in the area, and 69 per cent said they wanted to see the switch to public control. Nineteen per cent said the hospital should remain as a Catholic facility with its own board of directors.

Many of the supporters of the status quo at the hospital said they were Catholics and were happy with health care they have been receiving. Twelve per cent of those polled in the health region didn't have an opinion or refused to answer.

A poll with that sample size is considered accurate to within 3.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Controversy over sterilization

Many of those who wanted public control said religion and health care shouldn't mix and referred to a controversy over tubal ligations that has divided people in the community.

A tubal ligation is a procedure in which a woman's Fallopian tubes are burned, clipped, cut or tied to prevent pregnancy.

Last year, St. Elizabeth's stopped performing the sterilization procedure, saying it conflicted with Catholic health ethics.

Some patients, health care professionals and members of the public were outraged over the restrictions. The hospital later backed off on the ban, but still said Catholic health ethics would be a guiding principle at the facility. Some medical staff submitted their resignations.

Eberle said she hopes some doctors who have said they will leave will reconsider.

"We don't want to lose their services," she said.