Chaplaincy and Listening

During my week in Sheffield, I was staying with Richard and Linda Benn who are good friends of Stuart and Emily MacQuarrie. Richard works as a GP and during my time with him, I was able to visit his surgery. Two things struck me from the visit which I wanted to share on the blog for people to think about.

The first was, that the GP practice has a chaplain. In Scotland, we have chaplains in hospitals and many other places, but I haven't heard of chaplains linked to GP surgeries. In a country where a majority of people believe at the very least in God, a chaplain may be a great asset to a surgery.

The other thing that struck me from the noticeboard in the waiting room,was the LISTENING SERVICE which the surgery offered. Time to actually listen to patients is at a premium for hard pressed GP's. Local churches have trained up people in listening skills to help in this service offered to the community. Many of our congregation have been trained in Listening skills through the Acorn Foundation. Is this a service which we could offer to help a local GP practice with?
DM