The HSE has defended the practice of hospital chaplains and
Eucharistic ministers placing Holy Communion on the tongues of patients.
It was responding to concerns expressed in Letterkenny General
Hospital that the practice was unhygienic and risked cross-infecting
patients.
In a statement, the HSE said all chaplains receive training
on good hand hygiene practices and are aware of cross infection issues.
“They are aware of the correct measures to take; there is no contact
with patients as such; the contact is primarily between the chaplain and
the host,” it pointed out.
The HSE stressed that patients who are immumo-suppressed or who are
in isolation do not receive the host.
It said that it is only those
patients who request the host who actually receive it and it went on to
praise the services that chaplains provide to ill people in hospital.
“The chaplains provide a very valuable service in attending to the
spiritual needs of the patients, which is part of the holistic care that
patients receive when they are in hospital,” the HSE said.
It was responding to claims by the relative of a patient who claimed
that he had seen a Eucharistic minister place communion hosts in the
mouths of patients in a ward without washing his hands in between them.