Hospital Chaplaincy Procedures

The request was partially successful.

Dear Birmingham Women ’s NHS Foundation Trust,

I would like to request the following information on standards, policies and procedures relating to hospital chaplains in your Trust.

Could you please:

1. tell me whether policies or procedures exist to:

a. establish whether a patient admitted to any of your hospitals does or does not wish to receive contact from a hospital chaplain

b. ensure that patients (or their visitors, next-of-kin etc.) do not received unsolicited contact from chaplains

c. safeguard patients’ personal and medical data such that hospital chaplains by default do not have access to it

d. ensure that hospital chaplains, when given access to patient data, do not share any of it with third parties

If you answered yes to any of the above, please could you provide me with copies of the relevant policies or procedures

2. outline your approach for monitoring adherence to the policies and procedures above

3. provide me with a summary of the results of this monitoring for the last five years, including rates of compliance with the policies and procedures, and severity of any non-compliance events

4. provide me with details of any action taken in respect of any non-compliance identified (e.g. tightening of procedures, disciplinary action – in the latter case, taking care not to disclose any personal information)

Please could you release this information in electronic form by email via this WhatDoTheyKnow request.

Yours faithfully,

Susan Davis

Heather Champion, Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Ms Davis

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - our ref R074-13

I acknowledge receipt of your request on 25 March 2013 as detailed below
and confirm that it is being handled appropriately under the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your request has been forwarded to the relevant department/s and I will
write to you again as soon as such information as we hold and are able to
disclose is forthcoming. In any event this will be on or before 24 April
2013, allowing for the bank holidays.

If in the meantime you have any comment or further query to make in
relation to this matter, please contact me quoting the above reference
number.

Yours sincerely

Heather Champion
Information Governance Manager
Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust

Tel: 44 (0)121 607 4720
E-mail: [Birmingham Women ’s NHS Foundation Trust request email]

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FOI Team (BWH), Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Ms Davis

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - our ref R074-13

Further to my acknowledgement of 27 March 2013, the Trust has reviewed your request relating to hospital chaplaincy services and is now able to respond. Your questions are repeated for ease of reference with answers beneath each.

1. tell me whether policies or procedures exist to:

a. establish whether a patient admitted to any of your hospitals does or does not wish to receive contact from a hospital chaplain
Yes, several procedures are in place; foremost amongst these is the information booklet which is given to each patient at booking or on admission; the booklet highlights chaplaincy services; what spiritual and religious care is available and how chaplains may be contacted.

b. ensure that patients (or their visitors, next-of-kin etc.) do not received unsolicited contact from chaplains
Yes, all chaplains receive regular group supervision, guidance and in-service training which pertains to the sensitivity of ‘unsolicited’ chaplaincy visits to reduce or obviate the risk.

c. safeguard patients’ personal and medical data such that hospital chaplains by default do not have access to it
Yes, by default and by Trust decision chaplains do not have access to medical records.

d. ensure that hospital chaplains, when given access to patient data, do not share any of it with third parties
Chaplains are required to adhere to all Trust information governance/security policies and procedures relating to data protection, confidentiality, information security and information sharing as well as records management. They also sign a confidentiality statement form. Permanent Chaplains are required to complete compulsory Information Governance training.

If you answered yes to any of the above, please could you provide me with copies of the relevant policies or procedures?
Aside from the information booklet for patients and the information governance Trust policies referred to at 1d above which apply to all staff, there are currently no formal policies written specifically by or for the Chaplaincy services. The booklet is available on our website under the Patient Experience/ tab at http://bwhct.nhs.uk/information-and-leaf.... If you require copies of the information governance policies specified at 1d above, please write back to confirm this.

The department also complies with UKBHCC professional codes of conduct for Health Care Chaplains - http://www.ukbhc.org.uk/publications/cod...

2. outline your approach for monitoring adherence to the policies and procedures above
Please refer to question 3 below.

3. provide me with a summary of the results of this monitoring for the last five years, including rates of compliance with the policies and procedures, and severity of any non-compliance events
Any breaches of confidentiality or security incidents for all staff, including chaplaincy staff, in the Trust is monitored by exception through the Trust’s incident management database. Unfortunately at present there is no dedicated field within the current version of the database which will facilitate the identification of chaplaincy staff specifically by role.

4. provide me with details of any action taken in respect of any non-compliance identified (e.g. tightening of procedures, disciplinary action – in the latter case, taking care not to disclose any personal information)
Please refer to question 3 above.

I trust that the above is helpful. If however, you wish to complain about the handling of your request or the content of this reply, please do not hesitate to contact me again and I will try to assist further. It would be helpful if you could explain the reasons for your dissatisfaction and quote the above reference. Should local resolution fail, you may request an independent internal review and ultimately you may appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Heather Champion
Information Governance Manager
Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust

Tel: 44 (0)121 607 4720
E-mail: [Birmingham Women ’s NHS Foundation Trust request email]

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