Hospital chaplaincy services call

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Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act found that NHS trusts across the UK were spending millions of pounds ever year on religious services for patients.

The NSS said the cash could better fund around 1,300 nurses or more than 2,500 cleaning staff, both of which were "much needed".

The organisation contacted acute and mental health trusts across the UK and received full responses from 233 trusts.

Overall, trusts spent £26.72 million a year on paying clergy staff, with an average spend per chaplain of £48,953. The NSS extrapolated these figures for the whole of the UK to suggest such services currently cost the NHS more than £32 million a year.

The NSS has sent its findings to health minister, Ben Bradshaw, and is calling on him to review chaplaincy services and the way they are funded.

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."

"It would be better if their own vicar, priest, rabbi or imam came to see them if they felt in need of religious support," Mr Sanderson added.

A spokesman for the Church of England said: "Spiritual healthcare has long been acknowledged, by both medical practitioners and the churches, to be an intrinsic part of caring for people in hospital. NHS Trusts pay for chaplaincies because they see them as part of their duty of care to patients, not because the churches force them to."