Rotorua Hospital Chaplaincy Report - 2016

The Chaplaincy Team at Rotorua Hospital have made 25,635 visits in the last 12 months, including contacts with patients, family and staff.

We currently have 14 volunteers, and one trainee, who was a Pastor of a local Church, and is loving being involved with our team, and with the patients at the Rotorua Hospital.

It has been a very difficult year for our team as we suffered the loss of one of our own through cancer. This volunteer was a wonderful Christian woman, whose love for God, Chaplaincy and people endeared her to all the team, as well as the patients, their families and hospital staff. She is sadly missed.

The Chaplaincy Team is very stable and we have a number of volunteers who have been with us for some considerable time. There is a wonderful spirit of community amongst the team, which is evident when we meet once a month for our team meetings, which consist of lunch and on going professional development. Team Members are encouraged to attend Regional Chaplaincy Meetings and, as a team, we hold an annual retreat, overnight – this past year was held at The Wairakei Resort in Taupo. The spiritual direction and the physical location offer physical and spiritual refreshment to our team, and is a way of saying thank you to them.

We continue to hold a service in the Chapel every Sunday, which has been greatly supported by the local churches, who assist with collecting patients, sitting with them, and taking them back to their rooms after the service. We also provide bed side communions and sacramental services as required.

We are in the process of advertising a new CPE course that will start in February of 2017 – there were no courses held in 2016 due to me having surgery. I completed a course from July to November 2015, with 5 students. This went very well.

Last Christmas, the Chaplaincy Department, together with Hospital staff, enjoyed an evening of caroling with patients, and handing out of teddy bears. This is an annual event.

I would like to once again express my appreciation to the Diocese of Waiapu for their continued support of Chaplaincy which enables us to minister to the people in our Community.

Rev Ray Bloomfield, QSM JP AHCC

Chaplain