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Is it right to mix religion and healthcare?
Doctors are demanding that NHS staff be given a right to discuss spiritual issues with patients. Is it right to mix religion and healthcare?
Doctors will tell the British Medical Association conference this week that staff should not be disciplined as long as they handle the issue sensitively. The doctors who are behind the motion are unhappy about the guidance that has been issued.
Last year community nurse Caroline Petrie was suspended by North Somerset NHS Trust after offering to pray for a patient, although the 45-year-old was later allowed to return to work.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said it is wrong to mix religion and health care. "The risk is that it makes patients feel uncomfortable."
Do you work for the NHS or have you used its chaplaincy service? Does religion have a role to play in healthcare or should the two be kept completely separate? Should NHS staff be disciplined if they sensitively offer to pray for patients?
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Published:
Sunday, 28 June, 2009, 08:11 GMT
09:11 UK
All comments as they come in
Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 14:04 GMT
15:04 UK
Wrong end of the stick, friend, what I'm saying is that we are made of physical,mental and spiritual-fact,all need addressing
John Bedigan, North Shields
I'd agree, but they don't all need to be addressed by the same person. I mean, you wouldn't go to a priest to get your eyes checked out or GP to have a wisdom tooth removed would you? They're kept seperate, same should apply here.
spamalot
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 14:00 GMT
15:00 UK
"Faith, hope and charity. 3 words the secular Taliban know nothing about, yet these have always been at the heart of healthcare and always will be."
Thrusting Raspberry III, Eastbourne
Ha ha, "Faith, hope and charity"? Sounds more like the next 3 kids Madonna's going to adopt!
Medicine, science and fact are what our healthcare system is built on. Its why doctors don't need to be spiritual, treat people rather than 'hope' for them and at £100bn pa the NHS certainly ain't no charity!
cholmes2
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:59 GMT
14:59 UK
"Religion and Science don't go together."
Robert Toseland, Sheffield, United Kingdom
So why have some of the greatest scientific advances been made by people of faith? Georges Lemaitre (Big Bang Theory), Pasteur, Roger Boscovich, Copernicus and many, many others prove that statement utterly false.
Thrusting Raspberry III, Eastbourne
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:59 GMT
14:59 UK
Mixing religion with health care should not be allowed as an official policy. However and on personal level, there isn't anything wrong provided there is mutual consent between the parties. Somehow, spiritual encouragement could have soothing effects depending on ones personal beliefs.
Cyprain Ikeche, Lagos, Nigeria
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:48 GMT
14:48 UK
When I was in hospital following a heart attack and the 'holy joe' was doing his rounds, I just pretended to be asleep. Saves embarrasment on both sides. It's a bit like when the Mormons/Jehovas witnesses bother me at home. I just pretend to be out.
As an atheist I believe that people should seek out religion rather than the other way round. I really would not want people praying for me but would not be hurt if it made them feel better.
Sally Gale, Halifax
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:26 GMT
14:26 UK
Absolutely - pray. I had the privilege of praying for a very sick 4 weeks old baby, following a request from my work colleague. She had stopped breathing on a couple of occasions and the doctors didn't know what was wrong. God healed her instantly.
"It might make someone uncomfortable" is the cry! They are already uncomfortable, so get real.
If someone, nurse or otherwise, cares enough to prayer for an ill person in hospital then they shouldn't be stopped by narrow minded bigots.
[Follower-of-the-Way], Reading, UK
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:21 GMT
14:21 UK
Stop using old distorted prejudices as an excuse to avoid facing spiritual issues that might challenge us to change our thinking"
John Bedigan, North Shields
Comments like that only reinforce 'prejudices'. Challenge our thinking? How about leaving people to their own beliefs? Atheists don't walk into hospitals asking people to recant their beliefs.
anon
Wrong end of the stick, friend, what I'm saying is that we are made of physical,mental and spiritual-fact,all need addressing
John Bedigan, North Shields
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:21 GMT
14:21 UK
Maybe they should also discuss doing a voodoo ritual and dancing half naked on the hospital bed ... it boils down to the same thing. No religion should not be at all involved in the medical process which relies on fact and science, two things religion seems oblivious.
Pete Royle, Macclesfield, United Kingdom
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:16 GMT
14:16 UK
I feel that asking doctors to discuss their patients spirituality is unneccessary unless it actually affects their decisions medically (IE, Jehovah's Witnesses). I also think that although a person offering to pray for an individual is fair enough, there are some religions that would be offended that someone from another religion was praying for him. I, as a Wiccan, would not offer to pray for a Christian or a Muslim, as they would probably take great offence in this!
[HeadBox], Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:14 GMT
14:14 UK
No
Chris Tench, Nottingham
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:08 GMT
14:08 UK
I would be most upset to be told that I was being prayed for by medical staff. It would lead me to deduce that they had given up on medicine and were desperate enough to try woo-woo.
This would be confirmation of the fact that I was going to die imminently.
Anon ymouse, United Kingdom
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:07 GMT
14:07 UK
The NHS shouldn't have any official line on religion, other than to tolerate the fact that both employees and users will have their own religions and may wish to talk about them. The contributor who said if prayer worked we wouldn't need doctors has it the wrong way round. Cancer, internal organ failure and a lot of serious injuries don't have a cure and for that reason patients should have access to anyone who can help them and their families face up to the reality of death.
Phil, UK
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:07 GMT
14:07 UK
Why not if it makes them feel good.
It should be on request and not thrust upon them.
[JockMcCool], dundee, United Kingdom
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:06 GMT
14:06 UK
I have to admit the thought of someone 'praying' for me gives me the screaming heeby jeebies but I certainly wouldn't be putting complaints in about nursing staff if they offered to pray for me and suggested I read Jeremiah 17:14 in order to recover more quickly from whatever ails me. I would smile, nod and secretly 'pity the fool'. Lets face it, it isn't going to help is it!
The real issue is the fact that people feel that they have a right to complain about everything that offends them!
Dave Pierce, Preston, United Kingdom
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Added:
Monday, 29 June, 2009, 13:04 GMT
14:04 UK
As a doctor, I know very well that there is no such thing as God. But, as with homeopathy, if patients take solace in it then there's really no harm.
Mind you, if I wanted to see a man in white with mysterious paraphernalia then I would go to see a dentist!
Dr Miles, London, United Kingdom
You don't 'know' there is no God, just as no human mind can understand the infinity of the universe
harry portsmouth
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Published comments: 638
Rejected comments: 53
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