Archbishop Vincent Nichols attacks NHS over compassion

Archbishop Vincent Nichols will reject calls for assisted suicide

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales is to use a homily to criticise what he sees as a lack of compassion in some parts of the NHS.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols will say that some hospitals see patients as no more than a set of medical problems.

He will say calls for assisted suicide and euthanasia reflect a society that does not know how to deal with death.

The archbishop's comments will be delivered at a special service of healing at Westminster Cathedral.

Prevailing culture

He will say the constitution of the NHS promises to respond with humanity to a patient's distress and anxiety as well as their pain.

But the archbishop will claim some hospitals fail to meet that commitment because of a prevailing culture which sees patients as no more than medical cases to be resolved.

He will say systems of care have been created which by treating patients in this way inflicts what amounts to hidden violence on them.

The archbishop will also say society is at a loss to know how to respond to death.

He will reject calls for assisted suicide, accusing its supporters of wrongly seeing death as simply a medical event.