An Islamic understanding of health care: what can it teach us?

Abstract

Supporting the case for employment and use of non-Christian health care chaplains in the National Health Service (NHS), the Runnymede Trust (1997) states: ‘The inclusiveness or otherwise of a society is seen particularly clearly in the provision which it makes for its members when they fall ill, and perhaps especially when they spend extended time in hospital. At this point of stress and distress in the lives of individuals and their families, are people helped to “maintain their own culture, traditions, language and values”? The Patient’s Charter of 1991 requires that health care providers should ensure “respect for privacy, dignity and religious and cultural beliefs”. . One way of helping to ensure that such respect is shown is through the appointment of hospital Chaplains.’ Although the Patient’s Charter (Department of Health 1991) and the subsequent NHS Management Executive document HSG (92)2 (Department of Health 1992) required provision for the religious needs of all patients, in reality, apart from a few exceptions, it led to the appointment of more Church of England Chaplains (Beckford and Gilliat, 1996). Recognizing this problem, Reid and Clarke (1998) indicated NHS Executive willingness to redraw these documents ‘provided it comes in the form of a common agreed approach to all faith communities, on the status of chaplaincy and spiritual care in the NHS’.