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From the 1st January 2002 the Data Protection Agency ruled that lists of Catholic patients are no longer to be available to chaplains.

(This also applies to Jews, Muslims and Jehovah Witnesses !)

It will be necessary for Catholic Patients to indicate to the Hospital admissions/wards that they wish to be seen by the Catholic Chaplain, as the priest will no longer have direct access to listings. In other words the request from the patient must be explicit.

It does not solve the problem of those taken in, in an emergency, or those too confused to know where they are. We will have to rely on information gained from other sources.

It is interesting to notice that this ruling does not come from the NHS, but from the DPA.

It appears that the ruling will also affect hospitals in other ways, such as not being allowed to post the name of patients above their beds or say who their consultant is!'

INFORMATION FROM ROYAL BOURNEMOUTH HOSPITAL CHAPLAIN

VISITATION AT THE ROYAL BOURNEMOUTH HOSPITAL:

Fr Ron Hishon, chaplain at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital writes:

May I appeal to you to keep an eye out for any Catholic family members, friends or parishioners who are in hospital, and promptly notifying me of their full name and ward. I routinely visit the hospital on a Wednesday afternoon, and on request for more urgent referrals.

Also Eileen McDermott, a SVP visitor and Eucharistic minister also visits, normally on Fridays.

Non urgent referrals may be made in two ways:

Inform Chaplain's Office 01202 704221 (internal ext. 4221) asking that I be informed in time for my next weekly visit.
Alternatively Ring me directly on 01202-513380, leaving details of the full name of the patient and ward number.

For urgent requests (usually for poorly patients who have not been visited in the last 48 hours), call me anytime directly using the number given above, or my Emergency Mobile Phone number: 07963 617031.