SOME might say that hospital consultants who profess their faith in God are merely displaying their usual self-belief, given their alleged tendency to act like an omnipotent being.
But a survey conducted by Doctor (Jan 10) shows that just more than half of consultants say that they believe in God, 34 per cent do not, and 12 per cent say that they “don’t know” — a rare example of consultants being stumped for an answer.
GPs are apparently even more God-fearing than their consultant colleagues: 61 per cent believe in God; 26 per cent don’t; and, as with consultants, 12 per cent “don’t know”.
But finding time for God must be difficult for doctors, given their skewed work-life balance. Of the 1,194 consultants who took part in the survey, 62 per cent say that they had too much work and too little play, as do 40 per cent of the 1,772 GP respondents.
When they do get time off from work, it seems that doctors like nothing more than tuning in to BBC Radio 4. Half the consultants surveyed are avid listeners while only 2 per cent turn the dial to the popsters’ favourite, Radio 1.
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But it’s back to God in Nursing Standard (Jan 11), which reports that cost-cutting measures mean that some NHS trusts are laying off hospital chaplains or cutting their hours. As a result, it says, families requiring last rites or urgent christenings of seriously ill babies “will have nowhere to turn”.
Amicus, the union that represents chaplains, claims that long-term financial crises are to blame, along with a reluctance among managers to pay staff more for out-of-hours shifts. Carol English, a professional officer for the union, says that trusts see chaplains as a “soft touch”.
But NHS Employers, which represents trusts, says it is unaware of any trend to cut chaplaincy services.