THE union representing healthcare chaplains has condemned plans which will see the proceeds of jumble sales and village fetes go to pay for the ministering to the sick and the dying in Worcestershire hospitals.

The College of Healthcare Chaplains (CHCC) represented by Amicus have made their views known after Worcester-shire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust announced last week that along with the one full-time chaplain it is funding, another will be funded through the friends groups of the county's hospitals in Worcester, Redditch and Kidderminster. This means that the six chaplains they were proposing to make redundant has been reduced to five - four part-time and one full-time.

Carol English, the Amicus officer representing the CHCC, said: "It is wrong, in principle, that salaried NHS chaplaincy staff, whose work has been recognised and codified by the Department of Health, should have to rely on charitable handouts, however worthy and well-meaning.

"Where will this stop? Will we have a bring and buy sale to finance a hip replacement operation?

"Hospital friends' groups already raise funds to provide extras for NHS patients and clients, such as library services and garden furniture."

She later added: "Do Hos-pital friends' groups really intend that the money they raised should be used to pay NHS salaries?"

The trust has come up with a three-way solution with local church leaders and three friends' groups, so it can achieve a £100,000 savings on its chaplaincy budget. Church leaders will be launching a local fund- raising campaign to support the chaplains.

Amicus think the chaplaincy service, whose value to the NHS has been recognised by the Department of Health, and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), should be paid for by the trust.

No one from the Worcester-shire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was available to comment at the time of going to press.