Chaplains welcome contact from relatives informing them of a patient’s stay in hospital.  They may be contacted directly or through the nursing staff.

Admission to Hospital

Anyone who is given a appointment for admission to hospital for surgery under anaesthetic should contact their local priest and ask to receive the Sacrament of the Sick before admission, as currently there is usually only a relatively short time between admission and surgery.  (It may also be useful to inform the local chaplain in advance, using the list of Hospital Chaplains included after the parish entries for each diocese.)

Anyone admitted to hospital unexpectedly (and kept in) is probably sufficiently ill to merit receiving the Sacrament of the Sick as a spiritual aid in their illness.  Every hospital has a system for contacting the R.C. Chaplain urgently in emergencies.  This is activated by the patient or family asking the nursing staff clearly to summon the Catholic Chaplain.

The same system may also be used to request a visit from the R.C. Chaplain, but the nurse should be asked to make it clear to the priest that it is not urgent.

Because of the way confidentiality rules are interpreted in most hospitals today, the Catholic Chaplain is often not informed of the admission of any Catholics, except as above, therefore the form below maybe used to achieve this.

Patient’s Religious Declaration

I am a Roman Catholic.

While a patient in hospital, I wish to exercise my Human Rights, as enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 9 / 1 of Practising my Religion.)

I request that the Roman Catholic Chaplain be informed of my admission to hospital, and that I receive a visit from the Roman Catholic Chaplain.

I give explicit consent for this information to be made available to the Roman Catholic Chaplain and I would request that this document form part of my personal case notes.

Signed…………