Chibundu Onuzo seems to think that it was appropriate for a nurse to ask patients, on their way to surgery, if she could pray with them (I’m invisible – I am a Christian, 13 December). I put the question to my elderly friends. The majority said that it would terrify them at a particularly vulnerable time as they would assume that the nurse expected them to die. Some said they would be angry at such an inappropriate question in a hospital. One commented that he had previously been approached by a hospital chaplain and, far from being comforted, was shocked that the NHS was paying the chaplain’s wages when it had had cut nursing staff.
To inflict your own beliefs on someone who cannot get away from you and at such a tense time is unprofessional in the extreme. Everyone is entitled to practise their own belief in their private life, but forcing it on others in the work environment is simply wrong.
Dorothy Smith
Welwyn Garden City
• The Darent Valley hospital board will waste a lot of NHS money on lawyers’ fees by sacking a good nurse, Sarah Kuteh, in a cruel manner. All she did was to ask patients if they would like prayer support. She was not thrusting her Christian views on them. Perhaps the hospital chaplain team could act as advocates between the board and Sarah before this escalates into an unnecessary expensive and wasteful court case. How about doing this before Christmas?
Eddie James
Rillington, North Yorkshire
To inflict your own beliefs on someone who cannot get away from you and at such a tense time is unprofessional
• It is sad that Sarah Kuteh lost her job after offering to pray with patients. Generally I feel that, as with politics, religion should be avoided in the workplace. Someone is going to be offended or feel excluded, so best not. If hospital admission forms still list religion, patients could then be informed what services are available, hospital chaplain etc.
Going into surgery affects people in different ways – pre-meds make me sleepy and I prefer to be left alone – but if someone needs prayer before then, best to discuss that at time of admission.
Val Cook
Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire
• Chibundu Onuzo complains of invisibility. How strange! For consider. There is a church in every village and district – often several. There are bishops in the House of Lords. There are church schools round every corner – with more to come. There are prayers in parliament and council meetings. There is the priority that schools give to religious perspectives on morals and belief; perspectives to which most of us are now indifferent or hostile. And then there is Thought for the Day – still closed to non-religious voices.
It’s an odd kind of invisibility that is quite so visible. And an odd kind of believer who feels that it’s not enough.
David Flint
Vice-chair, North London Humanist Group
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The perils of mixing faith and healing | Letters
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