Chaplaincy

The SUHT Chaplaincy team, consisting of chaplains and volunteers, is available to support patients, their families and carers during their time in hospital. The team provides a caring, confidential listening ear to everyone who wants to talk through their experience, whether you have a specific religious faith or not.

Spiritual care: Looking after the whole person

Chaplains are available for those requiring spiritual care in the broadest sense of the word, to listen and be alongside those who may be experiencing loss, fear, distress or anxiety.

We are also available for those requiring specific religious care, such as receiving the sacraments, prayer or putting you in contact with a religious leader or community. The Chaplaincy team have contacts with many faith leaders in the local community and, where required, will do our utmost to find the appropriate support required.

The chaplaincy team also provides support and a listening ear for the staff and the organisation as a whole. We are available for consultation and advice on all matters related to spiritual and religious care within SUHT.

Making Referrals to the Chaplaincy team

We are pleased to visit anyone referred to us, from staff and relatives, to ministers or the patient themselves and offer a 24 hour on call service across the Trust. There is a named link chaplain for each clinical area and whilst all the team visit everywhere in the hospital, link chaplains take a particular responsibility for visiting and working alongside staff in their areas.

For non-urgent requests, please contact us on extension 8517 (023 8079 8517, if calling from outside of the hospital). Please leave a message on the answerphone if no one is available to take your call. We will try to respond to this request within 24 hours unless otherwise negotiated with you.

Urgent requests are usually only referred by the staff and these are made via the switchboard (023 8022 2777) asking the operator to page the duty chaplain. Please state if you require the Roman Catholic duty chaplain.

Feedback

Feedback on the service has included the following comments:

• "....how important the chaplaincy team is in the care of patients and relatives within the NHS. By the nature of your work I feel perhaps it may go unseen. It cannot be measured in terms of quantity. However, in quality, it was second to none. To us it was just as important as any physical care we received".
• "....it was very helpful of you to spend to time with us, at a late hour, alert to the situation and listening with much care and sensitivity and your help at a distressing time was really very much appreciated – thank you so much”.
• " Thanks for listening to all my problems".
• "....I don't think you will ever understand how much I’ve gained through your help. It has been a life-changing time. Thank you all”.
• "The comfort and love you showed in our time of distress and despair was wonderful and we shall never forget you”.

An audit of patient experience of the spiritual care service found that
• 100% of patients felt that the chaplain or volunteer appeared sensitive and understanding to their particular situation
• 97% of patients felt as if the chaplaincy team had been of help during their stay