Members of Saskatchewan's College of Physicians and Surgeons have approved a controversial policy.

Medical patients will be able to receive the care they seek without moral or religious interference from their physician through the Conscientious Objection Policy.

There were people who felt that the policy went too far in establishing expectation of physicians. - Bryan Salte

"This is something that took a lot of study [and] a lot of care," said the group's legal counsel and associate registrar, Bryan Salte.

"There was a really broad range of opinions that were expressed in the consultation process. So what happened was that there were two or three drafts that were prepared," he said.

According to Salte, the decision to approve wasn't unanimous.

"Much of the opposition related to the concern that physicians were going to be required to do things that they objected to and felt that were morally and ethically wrong," he explained.

Bryan Salte says the vote to approve the Conscientious Objection Policy was not unanimous. (Victoria Dinh/CBC) "There were people who felt that the policy went too far in establishing expectation of physicians who might have had the moral or ethical objection to certain procedures," he said.

The policy sets expectations for both patients and physicians. This means that if a patient is looking for something such as birth control, abortion or genetic testing, his or her physician is responsible to address the requested procedure.

"There are two major ways that this has been addressed. One of them is there's an expectation that a physician will ensure that a patient is able to obtain information," said Salte.

For example, if a physician has an ethical or moral objection to providing information to a patient about a procedure, then that physician has an obligation to ensure that the patient will receive the information in some other way. That could mean sending the patient to a different physician.

"The second way of addressing the issue is if the physician has a moral or ethical objection to the procedures itself, and is now in the position where the patient says, 'I want to receive birth control [or] I want to receive an abortion.' It sets expectations that the physician has to be in a position to ensure that the patient is able to access those services," said Salte.

This means if the physician refuses, he or she would have to send the patient to another physician who is able to follow through or make other arrangements for the patient to access the service.

The new policy will be applicable to all physicians and surgeons practicing across the province. Saskatchewan will be following the footsteps of other provinces such as Ontario.