Doctors and other medical staff are of course entitled to their beliefs, but should they express those beliefs to their patients, or offer prayer or spiritual support?

Patients need to have confidence in their doctor’s professional expertise, and to know that their doctor is relying on their knowledge and skills to do their best for them. Patients do not need to know whether their doctor shares their particular religious or non-religious beliefs, and may be disturbed if they find their doctor talking about religion, rather than about their condition or treatment – whether or not they are religious themselves. It may undermine their trust in their doctor and offers of prayer may well make them considerably more worried about their prognosis.

It is certainly true that some patients will want religious or spiritual support and they should be able to request that from a chaplain or from their own religious leader or congregation. I would expect doctors and medical staff to refer such patients appropriately, as well as listening sympathetically to their concerns.

We should of course also be able to expect doctors to make their treatment decisions on the basis of evidence, not assumptions, and doctors who are thinking of offering prayer or spiritual support should consider the available research. The largest and most comprehensive study of the impact of intercessory prayer, involving 1,802 patients in six academic medical centres in the USA, was reported in the April 2006 issue of the American Heart Journal. This study, which evaluated the impact of prayer on patients recovering from coronary artery bypass graft surgery, found that intercessory prayer had no effect on recovery from surgery without complications amongst patients who did not know whether or not they were being prayed for. More importantly, it found that patients who knew they were receiving intercessory prayer fared worse. The researchers did not claim to know the reason, but it seems likely that being told they were being prayed for made patients more worried about their condition. I know I would instantly become more worried if my doctor offered to pray for me or asked me about my beliefs, however sensitively done.

No one is asking doctors to leave their beliefs at the door, but they need to put their patients’ medical and personal needs before their own desire to express their beliefs. If they want to pray for a patient they can of course do so, but should do it silently and without the patient’s knowledge.

Hanne Stinson is Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association