CHAPLAINCY services in Scottish hospitals cost the NHS more than £3 million a year and should be funded by churches, it was claimed yesterday.
The National Secular Society (NSS) said that data obtained from health trusts under the Freedom of Information Act showed the NHS spending millions of pounds on religious services each year.
The NSS estimates that UK-wide, the health service
spends more than £32 million, cash the society claimed could be used to fund 1,300 nurses or 2,500 cleaning staff.
Terry Sanderson, president of the NSS, said: "We are not asking for an end to chaplaincy services, but we are asking that the taxpayer not be made responsible for them. In these times of financial stringency, hospitals are going to have to think very carefully about how they spend their budgets.
"Hospital chaplains are not on most people's list of essential services in a healthcare setting."
Mr Sanderson said that if the churches and religious bodies considered these services so vital, they should be prepared to fund them themselves.
Scottish figures showed that a total of 68 full-time chaplains and 152 part-time clerics were employed by the 14 NHS boards, at a total cost of £3,250,005.
The cost of employing a chaplain varies greatly between boards. NHS Dumfries and Galloway said that one full-time chaplain was employed, at an annual cost of £73,193, while NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said the average cost of employing a chaplain was £26,603.
However, Glasgow spent the most on chaplaincy in absolute terms, investing £617,190, and had the most full-time staff, with a total of 23 chaplains, followed by NHS Lothian and NHS Grampian, both of which employed 12 chaplains.
Last night, the Church of Scotland, the main provider of chaplancy services in Scotland, attacked the NSS report as "inaccurate" and "misleading".
Reverend Graham Finch, the convener of the Church of Scotland's Ministries Council, said:
"Chaplains seek to help people in their time of need and strive to maintain hope and purpose when lives are affected by illness or injury. This is available to all, regardless of religious persuasion.
"It is quite misleading to suggest that spiritual care is exclusively provided for people of faith. Chaplains do not proselytise and, on the contrary, would seek to protect patients from unwanted visits by representatives of faith and belief groups."
He added that health boards aimed to care for people as "whole persons" and chaplaincy services helped to ensure that the care available was "holistic".
A Scottish Government spokeswoman defended the services. She said: "We know that having a friend or family member who is seriously ill can be an incredibly difficult time and that these challenges faced by the people who are cared for by the NHS often raise the need for spiritual or religious care.
"That's why we ask NHS boards to support people in their hour of need by ensuring that their chaplaincy service is resourced to provide the necessary service throughout the year on a 24-hour basis."
'A RICH AREA OF THE MINISTRY'
THE Right Rev David Chillingworth, Bishop for the diocese of St Andrews, worked as a hospital chaplain at Craigavon Area Hospital in Northern Ireland for 19 years.
"I would say that it was one of the richest areas of ministry I was involved in because when somebody is in hospital, even if it is a minor thing, it still represents a significant event in their life.
"If it is to do with a sudden and serious illness involving a family member, it is a major shock and the function of chaplaincy was to be with people at a point when their sense of what life was about was being shaken. The hospital deals with those in clinical care, but chaplains have a vital role in dealing with the patient and family in helping them to come terms with what has happened."
