Hospital trusts are leaving chaplaincy posts unfilled

Key chaplaincy posts in healthcare trusts in our diocese are being left vacant as hospital bosses review the service.

At the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust, which employs seven chaplains, three are leaving this month and the DOOR has learned that their posts will not be advertised yet and a ‘review’ of the entire service will be carried out instead.

In Buckinghamshire, at the Milton Keynes General NHS Trust, one chaplaincy post –  which represents half the chaplaincy staff – has been left vacant for more than a year.

Hospital chaplaincy, a vital service for people at often their darkest hour, has been hit across the country as health trusts nationally struggle to balance the books after huge overspends.

In Worcester, six out of seven hospital chaplaincy posts have been axed to save money.

The Multifaith group of hospital chaplains has expressed its concern that healthcare chaplaincy ‘cannot  be provided by an inexperienced and ill-prepared workforce’.

At the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, one of those leaving is Canon Nick Fennemore, who is moving on after 17 years to become head of chaplaincy and bereavement support services with the Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust. Also leaving is the Revd Hedley Feast, the free churches chaplain, who is taking early retirement, and the Revd Gill Barker who is leaving the Horton Hospital in Banbury for parish ministry.

Trust spokesman Oliver Francis said the vacancies would not be advertised and a review of the service would be carried out, before any decision was taken over whether to fill or axe the positions.

Canon Fennemore said: ‘Chaplaincy is vital to the NHS. The majority of people we see are scared. They are not necessarily from a church background and they are trying to find spiritual meaning in what is happening to them.
‘Chaplains have the time that nurses just don’t have, to sit and listen at any hour of the day or night.’

Hedley Feast said chaplaincy was particularly important at times like bereavement when ‘just being there’ is what is needed for many people. He has served at the Trust for seven years which had been an ‘enormous privilege’, he said.

In Milton Keynes, the Revd Carole Hough has been struggling alone to do the work of two chaplains for more than a year.

Official guidelines said that 2.5 chaplains were needed at the hospital for the workload but instead of recruiting, the Trust responded by axing the out-of-hours service to reduce workload.

Mrs Hough said the move entirely failed to recognise that chaplaincy wasn’t a 9 to 5 job.

A spokesman for the Milton Keynes Trust said: ‘This Trust remains committed to providing pastoral and bereavement care and comfort for our patients, irrespective of denomination or belief.

‘To this aim, we have being trying to recruit staff to replace the recent departure. This has proved very difficult with no suitable candidate to date. Therefore, consideration is now being given as to how else we may meet the public needs and expectations.