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Case Study

Stephen Flatt, Lead Chaplain, St Mary's NHS Trust in Paddington is just three months into his role, though has worked in the NHS for nearly 30 years. He begun his career as a nurse and has worked in both paediatric and adult nursing, in both hospital and community settings.
After 15 years nursing experience, Stephen decided on a change of course and studied at theological college in Salisbury before being ordained in 1992.

He explains:

"I did voluntary work with a hospital chaplain before becoming a nurse. Nursing developed me as a person and once I felt I was sufficiently confident and mature, I was ready to train as a priest."

Stephen's first NHS chaplaincy role was an assistant chaplain at University College London Hospital and he found that the transition from clinician to chaplain was surprisingly easy. Now the Lead Chaplain for a team of five paid chaplains and eight volunteers, Stephen co-ordinates a service that provides Roman Catholic, Church of England, Free Church (Methodist), Jewish and Muslim support to patients, their relatives and staff. St Mary's has a Christian chapel and a prayer room that can be used by people of all faiths, though it is most popular with the hospital's large Muslim staff population.

"Although I have commitments to co-ordinate the team, attend meetings and sit on committees, I get a lot of satisfaction from visiting the wards and being there for patients in times of joy and crisis. I have been able to fulfil a patient's last wishes by marrying a couple on a ward and was recently stopped while walking across St Mary's Norfolk Square and asked to bless a new born baby on the spot by his parents!"

"I recognise that a large part of the work I do is to support our staff to care for the spirit of the patient. Though the religious aspects of my role are important, the spiritual dimensions of what it is to be human such as dignity, respect and worth are essential. "

"The launch of this guidance is a positive step forward for modernising the service. This is a very exciting time for NHS chaplaincy - healthcare is changing and we are looking to a 21st century service that is very much centred around the patient."

Case Study

  Peter Cowell Lead Chaplain at Barts and The London NHS Trust feels very strongly that faiths other than the traditional Roman Catholic and Church of England are represented by NHS chaplaincy services.

St Bartholomew's Hospital

"We're one of the biggest teams of hospital chaplains in the country with five full time chaplains and six part time chaplains, male and female, covering a range of faiths including Christianity, Judaism and Islam. We also have a chaplain who specialises in paediatric support. We respect one another's faiths and open the door to anybody we come across to extend hands of friendship as fellow human beings."

The Trust's award-winning Muslim prayer rooms at the Royal London hospital were developed in close consultation with the local Muslim community. This facility is in addition to a multi-faith chapel at the Royal London Hospital. There is a chapel and a prayer room at St Bartholomew's Hospital and a quiet prayer room at the London Chest Hospital.

Peter has become part of the furniture at the Trust, having been a chaplain there since 1990. As early as 1990, issues around providing a multi-faith service were beginning to be addressed owing to the multicultural community that the hospital in Whitechapel served and continues to serve today.

Gradually, symbols meaningful to other faiths were added to the chapel which had traditionally housed only a cross and a crucifix. For instance, a star of David was fixed to a wall for the Jewish community and an arrow indicating the direction of Mecca was introduced to welcome Muslims. An array of Holy books from various faiths were also made available in the chapel, with the spirit of co-operation and understanding demonstrated by the placing of the Holy Koran and the Bible together on the same shelf.

The remit of Peter's team is wider than supporting patients alone.

"We see patients, their relatives, friends, students and staff so that all sections of the hospital community are covered. If staff feel happy, motivated and supported in their work, this is naturally transferred to the patients they treat because staff are more aware of patients' needs."

"I am enormously privileged to have such a wonderful job. No two days are the same and I am lucky to be able to work with people from all walks of life. Seeing patients is the heart of the matter. A lot of hospital chaplaincy is standing in the places where there are no answers and having the courage and steadiness to be there. The work that has gone into producing this guidance celebrates the work we do and I welcome it warmly."

Good Practice

Avon Ambulance Service NHS Trust has made a positive start on offering a chaplaincy service to its staff. They have invited staff, through the staff newsletter to advise us of any other support that might be appreciated from staff of other religious groups.

Contact: Karen Higginson, Press Officer, Avon Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Bristol, on 0117 9280265.

Faith in Health

The Trust's chaplaincy service has pioneered a project called 'Faith in Health' in partnership with the Leeds Interfaith Forum. Two meetings between local religious leaders and Trust staff were held during the last year. The project is designed to give feedback to the chaplains about the concerns local people have from the perspective of their faith at a time of illness.

For more information, please contact Chris Swift, Head of Chaplaincy at Leeds teaching hospitals on 0113 206 4658 or 07866 563640.

Newham Healthcare NHS Trust's Imam Yunus Dudhwala was appointed at the beginning of February 2003 and became the first person in the country from a minority faith to head an NHS chaplaincy team. His achievements include:

• being elected as the 'Multifaith Coordinator' on the College Council of The College of Healthcare Chaplains;
• developing and delivering a training study day to over 50 Chaplains working in the NHS from Essex and East London on 'Chaplaincy in a Multifaith Society';
• helping improve food provision for staff and patients to meet their
  religious and cultural needs;
• creating a 'Death with Dignity' policy for the Trust;
• Ramadan and medicines guidance for Health Professionals in Newham;
• 'Ramadan! Ideal Time to Stop Smoking' Campaign 2003 with the PCT facilitating health programmes for the local Muslim community on their local Muslim radio station during the month of Ramadan with health professionals from the hospital;
• Hajj and Diabetes workshops for Diabetic Patients wishing to perform the annual pilgrimage to Mecca;

For more information, please contact Catherine Howard, Head of Communications at Newham Healthcare NHS Trust on 020 7363 8963.

During Ramadan last year, the Trust opened it Muslim Prayer room. This was in response to feelings raised by the local Muslim community about their embarrassment of having to use other faiths' facilities. The chaplaincy service felt that it was vitally important to provide Muslim patients with their own defined and dedicated facility and it has made a huge difference to this group of patients at the hospital whose spiritual and religious needs can now be fully met.

In addition, the service plays a large role in the use of volunteers in the hospital. Currently it has around 50 volunteers from multi-faith backgrounds who work on the wards at the hospital in association with the chaplaincy service to offer religious and spiritual support services to all patients.

Jenny Hudson, Communications Manager on 0121 627 2975 can tell you more.

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