To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what role hospital chaplains are playing in supporting (a) patients and (b) the NHS during the covid-19 pandemic.

NHS chaplains have given their all in response to the unprecedented need for pastoral and spiritual support during the pandemic, with patients, in liaison with families unable to visit their loved ones, and with NHS staff under stress. Chaplains are an essential component in the care for the whole person that is central to the NHS’s vocation.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has also been supporting patients at St Thomas’s Hospital, London as part of the chaplaincy team there and is regularly making time to speak to patients and support families and staff.