Sir, I was deeply disquieted and distressed to read your report (“Is it too much to ask for a prayer before dying in hospital?”, Register, June 26) that chaplaincy services in hospitals are to be sacrificed under proposed governmental budgetary cuts.
In my view the chaplain is the most important member of the hospital staff. Hospitals are a Christian foundation and the care of the sick and the dying is a God-given duty. In many cases healing cannot be effected without a positive state of mind, encouraged and reinforced by the supportive chaplain.
Having suffered a sudden tragic bereavement myself some years ago, I am aware that it is not just the patients who benefit from the chaplain’s presence.
It may be argued that we are ignoring our responsibility to our fellow man in permitting the insensitivity and inanity of axing this most important post of chaplain. The secularisation of society is to be deplored.
Caroline M. Buddery
Great Yarmouth
Sir, For the past 12 months in our trust, North Tees and Hartlepool, chaplains have been routinely informed when a patient is placed on the so called “end-of-life care pathway”. We visit the patient and/or family to offer pastoral and spiritual care. On average, we see 45 patients every month. Fewer than 8 per cent decline our input. Most are glad of our support and usually request a prayer. In this way, we feel we are fulfilling the requirement of the end-of-life care pathway that a patient’s spiritual needs should be assessed and met.
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In this unique initiative we have received the full support of the trust, including the palliative care consultants and team. Any initial anxieties expressed by some staff — for instance, the concern that we might be seen to be imposing religion — have dissipated, and our intervention and support are now viewed as beneficial to patient, family and staff. There have been no complaints but many compliments.
This is a model which can easily be transferred. Those who wish to take advantage of our pastoral and spiritual support may do; those who do not are free to decline.
In our view, and in practice, our intervention, along with the care of our clinical colleagues, contributes to the experience of a good death, and may well help to reduce the number of complaints which are often associated with a family’s experience of their loved one’s death.
As chaplains, we would highly recommend the model.
Paul Salter
Chaplaincy Co-ordinator,
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, Stockton on Tees