*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Hospital chaplaincy under the knife, study finds

28 June 2013

SHUTTERSTOCK

CHAPLAINCY services have been cut in 40 per cent of English NHS hospitals since 2009, new research suggests.

Of the 163 trusts contacted by BBC local radio, 39 per cent had fewer chaplains in 2013 than in 2009. Almost half (47 per cent) had fewer chaplaincy hours, contributing to an overall 8.5-per-cent fall in the total chaplaincy hours available in hospitals.

Eight trusts have cut chaplains by at least half. The ten at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust have been reduced to five.

One quarter of trusts have increased chaplaincy hours. Seven have more than doubled their chaplains. Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust now employs seven, compared with two in 2009.

Researchers also asked the trusts whether chaplains who had left in the past five years had been replaced. One third (36 per cent) said that the posts had not been filled, while 46 per cent (53 of 114) confirmed that, where the post had been filled, the occupants were on a lower pay band or working fewer hours.

A spokesperson from NHS England told the BBC: "There is no statutory requirement for hospitals to provide chaplaincy services, unlike prisons and the armed services. However, healthcare chaplaincy has been part of the services available to patients since the inception of the NHS.

"Locally, NHS trusts are responsible for delivering religious and spiritual care in a way that meets the diverse needs of their patients. Precisely how they do this is a matter for local determination.

"Since responsibility for the service has been transferred to NHS England we are currently reviewing the service. However, it is still a matter for individual trusts and faith leaders as to the level of service provided."

On Thursday, the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Revd James Newcome, the Church of England's lead bishop on healthcare, said that the situation was "not entirely a bad one" - the greatest cuts had happened in a limited number of trusts - but that any additional cuts "would place a huge burden on existing chaplains, who are already very hard-pressed, and could have all sorts of unforseen consequences for the NHS itself".

Bishop Newcome said that funding chaplaincy cost the NHS less than 0.1 per cent of its overall budget, and that cutting posts or hours substantially would be "disastrous for the proper holistic care of patients, staff, and families". Chaplains recruited and managed thousands of volunteers to provide a 24-hour service every year to NHS trusts, and were "the only people in the NHS who have the training and the time to deal with some of the things that matter most to people".

He quoted research suggesting that 90 per cent of nurses believed that chaplaincy care made a "significant difference to the speed with which people recover", and that about 15 per cent of hospital patients had "specific religious needs".

The Revd Rachel Bennett, lead chaplain at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, said that the Trust was "coping well" in a time of fiscal restraint. The BBC research suggests that the number of chaplains at the Trust has been cut from three to one, but Ms Bennett explained that five sessional chaplains were employed part-time, and their combined hours almost made up those of two full-time chaplains. This was an "imaginative way of ensuring that you continue to provide really good care".

The Trust was "absolutely committed" to chaplaincy services, she said: "It's not just the role we have in caring for patients but the resource we offer to the wider trust, and to staff . . . I am blessed that I am in a trust that sees the value, and it's not unusual for doctors to stop me in the corridor and just say 'Thank you for all you are doing for my patients.'"

Last year, the General Synod carried a motion affirming the part played by chaplains in the NHS and calling on the Government to "ensure that chaplaincy provision remains part of the core structure of a National Health Service committed to physical, mental and spiritual health" (News, 17 February 2012).

A staff reporter writes:

Why does the NHS employ chaplains? 

  • NHS has been committed to holistic care from its inception
  • Faith is important in society (and increasingly appreciated to be so)
  • They serve ALL the staff and patients in a specialised community - like school chapains, prison chaplains, and forces' chaplains
  • Therefore they have specialised expertise - they know something about 'the patient pathway' and the hospital environment
  • They are immediately available in a crisis, and able to work with patients at their moment of need
  • Few patients know how to contact a faith leader, or is in a hospital near one, or has one who is available to visit, or can visit at appropriate times, or who knows how to be with a patient in hospital, or knows how to liaise with staff, etc.

Why doesn't the Church pay?

  • The Church does pay. It trains all Christian chaplains at college/seminary, plus parish training, on-going supervision, clinical supervision, continuing professional development and support
  • But the chaplain is accountable to his or her NHS trust, and meets NHS requirements in terms of employment criteria and training - and so, like all other specialists, is employed by the NHS

 Why just Christian chaplains?

  • The NHS does employ chaplains of other faiths where the patient population warrants it
  • Jesus's mandate is to be universally inclusive and loving. This theology explicitly allows Christians to work for and on behalf of all people, of all faiths and none. So even where a chaplaincy is lead by Christians, or has only a Christian, the service can serve all people
  • Christian chaplains recruit volunteer chaplains from all faiths, and facilitate the religious observances of all staff and patients. They will be the point of information for doctors and nurses and dieticians about the medical implications of Ramadan, for instance

 Is chaplaincy just for the religious?

  • No. NHS chaplains meet all human need, wherever they meet it
  • Chaplains take many funerals, including of humanists, deal with bereavement and grief, help people with infant deaths, counsel people who are dying, and support staff with the pressures and grief they carry
  • They also advise the staff on matters of religious observance, ethics, theological questions

 Not many patients are religious nowadays

  • Not true: most people give a religious affiliation on their admissions form
  • Besides which, it's not really about religion. Chaplains addressing people's ultimate concerns from a standpoint of confidence, calm, love, respect and rigorous intellectual training - in a way that few other personnel in a hospital are able

 But aren't chaplains just too expensive?

  • It's difficult to quantify, because so much of what chaplains do is intangible
  • Good preventative care around trauma, illness, pain and death is known to save the NHS a lot of money, because these things leave a legacy of further illnesses
  • Less stress in hospital means less pain control, better recovery, lower drug intake, and quicker and better discharge outcomes

 And compassion is important

  • There have been unwelcome reports recently that compassion is lacking in nurses
  • Compassion can't be quantified or taught, but can be seen and felt
  • Compassion can be modelled and cultivated. It has its roots in a spiritual attitude to people that sees them as more than case-studies or bodies in beds, or diseases to be treated
  • The NHS's commitment to chaplains is one important marker of its commitment to giving holistic care

 

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Forthcoming Events

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)