CHAPLAINCY services have been cut in 40 per cent of English NHS
hospitals since 2009, new research suggests.Of the 163 trusts contacted by BBC local radio, 39 per cent had fewer chaplains in 2013 than in 2009. Almost half (47 per cent) had fewer chaplaincy hours, contributing to an overall 8.5-per-cent fall in the total chaplaincy hours available in hospitals.
Eight trusts have cut chaplains by at least half.
The ten at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust have been reduced to five, and the six at Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust to one.
One quarter of trusts have increased chaplaincy hours.
Seven have more than doubled their chaplains.
Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust now employs seven, compared with two in 2009.
Researchers also asked the trusts whether chaplains who had left in the past five years had been replaced. One third (36 per cent) said that the posts had not been filled, while 46 per cent (53 of 114) confirmed that, where the post had been filled, the occupants were on a lower pay band or working fewer hours.
A spokesperson from NHS England told the BBC: "There is no statutory requirement for hospitals to provide chaplaincy services, unlike prisons and the armed services. However, healthcare chaplaincy has been part of the services available to patients since the inception of the NHS.
"Locally, NHS trusts are responsible for delivering religious and spiritual care in a way that meets the diverse needs of their patients. Precisely how they do this is a matter for local determination.
"Since responsibility for the service has been transferred to NHS England we are currently reviewing the service. However, it is still a matter for individual trusts and faith leaders as to the level of service provided."
On Thursday, the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Revd James Newcome, the Church of England's lead bishop on healthcare, said that the situation was "not entirely a bad one" - the greatest cuts had happened in a limited number of trusts - but that any additional cuts "would place a huge burden on existing chaplains, who are already very hard-pressed, and could have all sorts of unforseen consequences for the NHS itself".
Bishop Newcome said that funding chaplaincy cost the NHS less than 0.1 per cent of its overall budget, and that cutting posts or hours substantially would be "disastrous for the proper holistic care of patients, staff, and families".
Chaplains recruited and managed thousands of volunteers to provide a 24-hour service every year to NHS trusts, and were "the only people in the NHS who have the training and the time to deal with some of the things that matter most to people".
He quoted research suggesting that 90 per cent of nurses believed that chaplaincy care made a "significant difference to the speed with which people recover", and that about 15 per cent of hospital patients had "specific religious needs".
The Revd Rachel Bennett, lead chaplain at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, said that the Trust was "coping well" in a time of fiscal restraint. The BBC research suggests that the number of chaplains at the Trust has been cut from three to one, but Ms Bennett explained that five sessional chaplains were employed part-time, and their combined hours almost made up those of two full-time chaplains. This was an "imaginative way of ensuring that you continue to provide really good care".
The Trust was "absolutely committed" to chaplaincy services, she said: "It's not just the role we have in caring for patients but the resource we offer to the wider trust, and to staff . . . I am blessed that I am in a trust that sees the value, and it's not unusual for doctors to stop me in the corridor and just say 'Thank you for all you are doing for my patients.'"
Last year, the General Synod carried a motion affirming the part played by chaplains in the NHS and calling on the Government to "ensure that chaplaincy provision remains part of the core structure of a National Health Service committed to physical, mental and spiritual health."