“Religious groups should fund their own presence in UK hospitals and save the NHS some £40m per year, the National Secular Society (NSS) suggests. The organisation of non-believers says such money would be better spent on ‘much needed’ nurses or cleaners. The NSS said it contacted 233 acute and mental health trusts which spent a total of £26.72m on chaplains, at an average of £48,953 each. The society extrapolated these figures for the whole of the UK to produced a national average of £32m”.

I agree with the spokesperson representing ‘the Churches’ inasmuch as hospital chaplains provide a valuable service – to those who make use of them.

But I fully agree with the position of the National Secular Society when they say it’s far more important for the NHS to be using its funds to pay for doctors, nurses, cleaners, drugs, and equipment.

And it’s not just a matter of cash, but equality. Why should ‘big churches’ get to get their hireling ministers into hospitals at taxpayers’ expense, but not smaller ones?

And where might we draw the line on what constitutes a ‘valid’ chaplain anyway? If the taxpayer pays for a Church of England or Roman Catholic priest, why shouldn’t it also pay for a Mormon pastor? Or a Jehovah’s Witness? Or a Moonie or a Scientologist?