Radio 4’s Sunday programme recently discussed new Theos research into hospital chaplaincy. The research found that there have been significant cuts to the amount of chaplaincy available in 1 in 4 trusts in England, cumulatively mounting to a loss of over 54,000 hours (p/a) since 2005. In one NHS Trust, chaplaincy provision had been cut by over half in the last two years.

Cue secularist delight, with something like the following logic. "The NHS exists to provide clinical care. The NHS necessarily subsists on a limited budget. NHS funds, therefore, should not pay for anything but clinical care." In the words of Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society:

"We want nurses and doctors in our hospitals in sufficient numbers to take care of our health properly ... if you want a chaplain and can't afford it, the church [here a lazy cipher for the many traditions, including humanism, represented in healthcare chaplaincy] should pick up the tab, not the taxpayer."

I doubt anyone will ever convince Terry Sanderson otherwise. But those who share his views should consider the services that chaplains provide before they campaign for, or celebrate, their removal. Healthcare chaplains exist to meet the pastoral needs of all patients, relatives or members of hospital staff who request it. They do not primarily exist to deliver services that are, in some way, narrowly 'religious', such as prayers or communion. Rather, they are there, to answer needs that are simply human: coping with the death of a loved one, the suffering of a child, the fear that comes with injury or sickness.

The chaplain's role is less that of a cleric and more of someone who has time, experience and wisdom; who is willing to sit with the needy, listen to their stories, and share their burdens; who will act as an advocate for those who lack a strong voice.

Their role was captured in the words of one doctor, who told Theos:

"I recently called the Church of England chaplain as we had to withdraw care from a child with leukaemia and put him onto palliative care. The chaplain supported the family throughout this very painful period."

Chaplaincy is not some bolt on to core services. Instead, it is precisely because the primary objective of the NHS is to provide clinical care that chaplains should continue to be publicly funded. Their presence enables hard worked medical practitioners to deliver on their responsibilities knowing that there is someone who is responsible for looking to the pastoral needs of patients and their families.

Where chaplaincy provision is removed it is not replaced by secular pastoral support - assuming “You are only a 'lumbering robot' programmed by your genes so you shouldn't fear an eternity of non-existence,” qualifies as pastoral support. Instead, it is simply lost to those most in need.

Some may see chaplaincy cuts as a victory of clinical obligations over the vested interest of the religious establishment. But "victories" of that kind will come at a high cost to patients and staff.

Paul Bickley is a researcher at Theos.