God awful row over hospital bibles link to MRSA bug

Jun 5 2005

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust are on the verge of a very embarrassing public relations disaster after the trust's chaplain stalled a request from Gideons International to be allowed to replace patients' bedside Bibles.

The tabloid media immediately jumped on his decision and interpreted it on the front pages of their newspapers as paramount to banning the Bible from hospital wards.

The hospital trust is denying accusations that it thought having the Bible on the wards might offend non-Christians but a spokeswoman was unable to say whether the Gideon Bibles would be allowed to remain in patients' lockers.

The latest statement from Anne McGregor, head of communications, now says the infection control team was considering whether the Bibles might contribute to the spread of MRSA and other infections, while the equality panel was looking into whether there was equitable provision of religious material suitable for Leicester's multifaith community.

She says the trust might also decide to provide a range of religious material, the Bible, Qur'an and other texts, on request.

Speaking on a national BBC radio programme she said the hospital could then control the religious material and would also know which patient had what. Ms McGregor said that would allow appropriate action to be taken if a patient who was known to be infected came in contact with a holy book.

The health secretary and MP for Leicester West, Patricia Hewitt, is sensibly staying out of the controversy.

Iain Mair, the executive director of Gideons International UK headquarters, in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, says the actions are implying a potential MRSA risk, and are a form of discrimination, which is in his view, nonsense and 'political correctness gone mad'.

Mr Mair said his organisation had agreed to run its volunteers through criminal records checks before they enter wards to distribute Bibles.

The trust has said in its' latest statement that the chaplaincy team are seeking the views of the trust infection control, service equality and volunteer services departments, and is unable at this point to expand further as discussions are at an extremely early stage.