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From the Right Revd Dr. Peter Selby, Bishop of Worcester:
Getting rid of 675 full-time-equivalent posts from the staff of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals was described to me by the Chief Executive as a ‘big project’. Indeed. While it’s good to know that someone feels that he has been given a challenging task, what will the challenge be like for the much larger number of individuals and families affected?
What will the challenge be like for the people who get their redundancy notices? What will it be like for the patients who find services withdrawn? What will it be like for the staff who breathe a sigh of relief to find they are not on the redundancy list, but know in their hearts that a ‘big project’ carried out once can be carried out again – and again. What will it be like to be a patient knowing that the person who treats, or nurses, or feeds you in the hospital does so with that kind of threat hanging over their heads?
I can tell you what will happen in the one corner for which I have some responsibility, namely chaplaincy. It’s what the Trust might call a ‘small project’, clearly not very important in their eyes. So the Board has decided that there will be no chaplain at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital, and all part-time help is to go, leaving one Chaplain to provide service to three hospitals. Forget the fact that now, with just three full-time staff across the whole county (one of whom devotes most of his time to the Mental Health Trust), and the part-time help of other ministers the chaplaincy accesses many, many hours of voluntary help every week, and enables staff and patients to practise and be supported by their many different faiths. Forget the fact that as little as a year ago, when the overspend was already known two of those three staff left secure posts to come and work here on the basis that their employment was secure.
Forget all that if you will, and just remember what will happen when you find yourself in Worcestershire Royal Hospital with a life-threatening condition, or bereaved after a loved one’s long illness, or with a daughter feeling dreadful after a termination. You may ask to see the Chaplain, and the answer will be ‘We don’t have one any more – here’s a list of people you could ring’. [Who will keep the list up to date?] Maybe a kind nurse will point you to the prayer room where you could at least spend some time in quiet reflection; but when you get there you will find nobody has cared for it, and the sensitive sharing of that space by a variety of faiths, which the Chaplains currently manage, has been abandoned to chaos. All this in direct contradiction of the Department of Health’s own guidelines on Chaplaincy published in 2003.
Maybe you who read this think this is a matter for those who ‘do religion’, and that as you don’t there’s no need to worry. But you should worry, for two reasons. At a time where the Trust is causing huge disruption to the lives of staff and patients the chaplains’ role in staff support makes a difference, hidden but real, to the whole life of our hospitals. And secondly you should be concerned about what this piece of destruction represents about the whole tone and direction of the service; after all, what I have said about chaplaincy will be repeated as this tragedy unfolds in department after department.
Outside, the hospital stands as ever, attractive and proud. Inside as before are dedicated people, doctors, nurses, administrative and support staff, cleaners, porters – the list is huge and the total value of the commitment and skill is beyond price. But be clear: this remarkable achievement is built on a mountain of debt – the Private Finance Initiative. The hospital, and that means your health and the health of our county, is the hands of the accountants. Individually they may be as caring as any of us; but in the task they have undertaken they leave their humanity at the door as they undertake their ‘big project’. There is still spirit and care among our health service staff, but watch out: the demolition contractors are here.
Ends.
The Diocese of Worcester is one of 44 dioceses in the Church of England. It covers an area of 671 square miles and includes parishes in the County of Worcestershire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, and a few parishes in northern Gloucestershire, south east Wolverhampton and Sandwell.
