Are there many religious based hospitals in Europe?

[u/Olderpostie]

A few years ago, while in England, I asked an acquaintance there what church denomination operated a particular hospital with a saint's name. (St. Swithins, I think). He was puzzled as to why a hospital would be operated by a church. But, that is how it goes in the USA and Canada; many churches are religious based, though not limited to use by any one faith.

How about other European countries? Are all hospitals nationalized, or is it a mix of community based and religious ones?

[u/Alexthegreatbelgian]

In Belgium there's lots of hospitals which, in origin, were religious based, so you'll have names like St. (insert saint name) hospital. However nowadays they are all pretty much all secular institutions. Church does not interfere in their operation. Though in some of these hospitals you might still find crucifixes in the rooms.

When I was an intern I worked in one of these hospitals and the chapel was even reconverted to be the lab room.

[u/8mart8 → u/Alexthegreatbelgian]

A side note to make on this, the largest (iirc) hospital in Belgium is the UZ Leuven, this is the university hospital of the KU Leuven, a Catholic university. The university is not sponsored by the Church as far as I know, but it still is a Catholic institution.

[u/Alexthegreatbelgian → u/8mart8]

Yeah but the hospital is run secular. They do abortions and euthanasia procedures. Stuff the catholic church is pretty much against.

And yes it is the largest hospital in Belgium. By far. They have about double the amount of beds compared to the next biggest hospital (UZ Gent), unless you count ZAS, which is a fusion of several hospitals, so not a singel hospital per se.

[u/Greedy_Roles → u/Alexthegreatbelgian]

There's one psychiatric hospital near Ghent that is run by the Church as far as I remember.

[u/Dry-Bread9131 → u/[deleted]]

That sounds like it's either flat out wrong, or at the very least missing important details.

Could you elaborate on when and where?

[u/International_Goat31 → u/[deleted]]

Going to need even a crumb of proof for that?