SOUTHAMPTON MEDICAL SOCIETY ON ZOOM
President Dr Alexandra Freeman FRCGP
An ordinary meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday April 7th 2021 which preceded the AGM. The President was in the chair. She introduced the speaker, the Reverend Canon Nick Fennemore who spoke to the title “Reflections of an NHS Chaplain”.
He outlined his career in the church. He had always wanted to be a hospital chaplain and had had to bend the rules a bit to become a full time chaplain. He now works for Southern Health Foundation Trust as well as carrying out duties at Winchester Cathedral as a chaplain to the various communities that together make up the Cathedral family. He undertakes pastoral care activities on behalf of the Dean and Chapter. As with all Cathedral clergy, he assists in leading worship at the various Cathedral services. After ordination in St Alban’s Abbey in 1979 Nick worked in parishes for seven years. In 1986 he became a hospital chaplain and served in the NHS in Carshalton, Oxford, Portsmouth and a hospice in Chichester. Nick is also head of the chaplaincy, delivering spiritual and pastoral care, at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. During his time in Oxford he was invited to become an honorary canon of Christ Church Cathedral.These positions have enabled him to develop different pastoral and theological interests which include medical ethics, teaching pastoral studies, developing liturgical services for families who have lost loved ones through death, dying and bereavement. He was particularly interested in pastoral care for families who had lost babies at or around the time of birth. He found that this group were vulnerable and were unsupported at a particularly emotional time. They would be discharged from the birthing unit without their baby and it was left up to the families to provide their own support. He also found that parents of babies in ICU were in similar need of support. As a result he developed a system of support for people in this situation. This included a multi-faith and no-faith approach.
More recently he has been chair of the End of Life Group for Southern Health whose aim is to try and create the same level of care throughout the whole of South Hampshire. Hospital chapels are important he said. They are a haven for people under stress, of any faith and none. He related how on one occasion when he was conducting a ceremony in a hospital chapel a Muslim man came into the chapel to pray quietly in a hidden corner. He considered the occasion an important reminder of the importance of these spaces.
The President thanked Nick for a most inspiring talk. The meeting then conducted the AGM of the Society, which is reported separately.