'If you want spiritual help, die only between nine and five'

From The Irish Times-

LONDON LETTER: Chaplains fear patients of faith could go to their deaths alone because of hospital cutbacks, writes MARK HENNESSY

EVERY DAY, Carol English, who works with the College of Health Care Chaplains in London, receives calls from worried chaplains attached to English hospital who fear that accelerating National Health Service cutbacks will see them being made redundant, leaving patients of religious faith facing operations or death without the opportunity of spiritual comfort.

Some have already been let go by the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London and the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, while others have had their hours cut dramatically.

The chaplains, who are mostly drawn from the Anglican, Catholic, or other Christian faiths, are “a soft target”, said English, for NHS managers trying to save money, even though the savings made are trifling.

The consequences, however, are not. Under the strict rules that govern the NHS, chaplains fulfil duties that cannot be easily handled by local parish-based priests and clerics. “Already, the cutbacks in the out-of-hours services mean that you should not die out of hours if you want spiritual help. Die only between nine and five,” English said.

More here-

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0701/1224273706664.html