A Personal Response to Pressures
I am increasingly concerned at the manner in which the North Herts Trust is pressing me to give assurances that they are not demanding of others, when they have agreed that I have done nothing wrong. I am perplexed as to why they want to refer my activities to the General Medical Council. I cannot believe it is because I take an interest in my patients holistically.
In his report for 1997 called ‘On the State of Public Health’, Sir Kenneth Calman, the Chief Medical Officer emphasised that ‘concern for the individual’ should be a pre-eminent concern for those making decisions about health. He goes on to explain what he meant by this and included,
“holistic aspects to cover physical, social, psychological and spiritual aspects of life”.
There is no doubt that to have a faith does give us a purpose, strength and moral basis for life and that Professor Calman is right to conclude that spiritual aspects of life are important in both an individual’s and a nation’s health. Having a faith often helps patients and their relatives cope with illnesses. The chaplains in our hospitals are not simply social workers but are there to help satisfy these spiritual needs of patients and their families. This country is still formally a Christian country there is still a widespread conviction that the Christian faith is true.
In our society there are many practices that go under the broad umbrella of ‘complementary medicine’ and many are indeed encouraged in National Health Service hospitals. How can it be wrong to offer people the opportunity to find an orthodox faith for themselves, when by common consensus that faith is both helpful and true?
In our hospitals there are many practices that encourage people to find or deepen their faith. Nurses are asked whether they have ‘satisfied the spiritual and ethnic’ needs of their patients. Chaplains and lay chaplaincy staff visit patients to discuss, pray or give communion. Patients are invited to chapel services, sometimes by letter or printed invitation. Some General Practitioners invite their patients to ‘Open Evenings’ where they can think about the relevance of the Christian faith to themselves.
If the North Herts Trust wishes that none of their employees should become involved with their patients spiritual needs, then they should say so clearly. It is obviously not acceptable for any prohibitions just to apply to myself and not to other staff.
I often get very close to my patients and their families and get involved with all types of problems they face. Facing a crisis can highlight spiritual needs and I do not think it is inherently wrong to help people in this area of their need. The General Medical Guidelines agree with this. Obviously there must be no pressure, and any such help must not interfere with the management of the prime reason they were referred with. To cause offence would be counter productive in helping a patient. It is also important not to be misunderstood and it is for this reason I have rarely written to patients of the Trust. I do not think that the Trust should be able to prohibit how a health professional relates to people they have met through their work in their own time and at their own expense. Any involvement in the personal or social lives of patients is liable to be misunderstood, even a suggestion that they should cease smoking! The presence of such a risk does not mean health personnel should never get in involved in these areas, but that they must behave with great caution. This is what I have been doing for the fourteen years that I have been working in North Herts and I know of no complaints about how I help patients in this area. I have a thriving surgical practice that I hope reflects my reputation locally.
I, like many, feel strongly that this attempt to lay down rules that only apply to me is a poor response to the recent publicity. This publicity was not caused by me, and has been accepted as being untrue and libellous. There are many patients whom I have helped spiritually who would be very pleased to say so publicly should this debate go further. I understand some of these have already written to the Trust as well as to the local newspapers. I have had no letters of complaint about my actions in this area.
I feel particularly aggrieved that these problems have, to a considerable extent been fuelled by the response of the Trust to the media and I am now convinced that it is not the welfare of my patients that is their prime concern.
I would like to stress that I am not a member of some peculiar religious sect, but am an active member of St. Paul’s Church in Letchworth (Church of England) and am a member of the Christian Medical Fellowship. I am orthodox in my Christian beliefs, holding to the historic articles of the Christian faith.
BVP
