HOSPITAL chaplains have welcomed the launch by the Shadow Health Minister, Mike Penning, of an all-party consultation on the place of chaplaincy and spiritual care in the NHS.
The Department of Health reaffirmed its commitment to hospital chaplaincies in new guidelines issued in 2003. By 2006, however, these were running at half their establishment levels, and there were regular reports of redundancies.
The then Bishop of Worcester, Dr Peter Selby, described as “a piece of destruction” a decision by the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust to withdraw two of its full-time chaplains and all its part-time chaplains in order to save money (News, 11 August 2006).
The consultation has not been initiated by any particular crisis, but seeks to underpin chaplaincy work and address the wide variation in provision across the country. It will assess progress on the 2005 report Caring for the Spirit, which highlighted training and multifaith support.
It will also review the potential benefits of NHS chaplaincy becoming a commissioned service. This would mean its being treated like another clinical service rather than what the Revd Edward Lewis, chief executive and secretary of the Hos-pital Chaplaincies Council, de-scribed on Tuesday as “just a nice vicar dropping in and smiling”.
“This consultation is excellent,” Mr Lewis said.
The Conservatives are the first party to appoint a front-bench spokesman on chaplaincy.
Submissions are invited by 26 September to: Mike Penning MP, House of Commons, Westminster SW1A 0AA.
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