Catholics in Healthcare has launched a major initiative to support those who work in healthcare by offering practical information on caring for Catholics and promoting the Catholic ethos of care.

Catholics in Healthcare will work with the Department of Health and NHS nationally and in each diocese to ensure that Catholic patients and healthcare workers are supported.

A website, www.catholicsinhealthcare.org.uk, is being launched along with a series of practical publications offering guidelines for health workers and NHS managers and trusts under the banner 'Caring for the Catholic Patient'.

The publications 'A Guide to Catholic Chaplaincy for NHS Managers & Trusts' and 'Meeting the Pastoral Needs of Catholic Patients' are already available for sale from the Catholic Truth Society.

Catholics in Healthcare is backed by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England & Wales and is a voluntary group of Catholics in healthcare who come together to help witness to the Catholic approach to healthcare.

The starting point for their work comes from the Church's teaching that Catholics working in healthcare or social care are an important part of Christ's healing ministry and mission.

Bishop Tom Williams, Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool and Chair of the Catholics in Healthcare Reference Group, reassured that the Church wanted to support, not scrap, existing healthcare.

"The Church has a hugely important role in healthcare. We are not trying to teach the healthcare system what to do, nor are we looking for a privileged position," he added.

"We are trying to show that Catholics have a natural affinity with healthcare, and make a strong and supportive contribution as we continue to work in collaboration with the healthcare system."

"In a healthcare system which however well-intentioned risks turning patients into units of care, while making the body an instrument to be treated, the Church witnesses to something more.

"We witness to the dignity of the whole person, loved and created by God as a spiritual and emotional, not just physical, being."

He said he hoped the initiative would help "galvanise" Catholics working in healthcare to promote "our vision of care for the whole person and sharing in Christ's healing ministry".

Nearly 10 per cent of the population of England and Wales is Catholic and demographic changes resulting from immigration mean the Catholic population is changing and growing.

Catholics in Healthcare, working in collaboration with the NHS, aims to ensure these publications, the website and future activity will benefit all those who offer and receive healthcare in this country, it said.

Both publications and website have received cross-party backing with support from the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, and the Shadow Secretary for Health, Andrew Lansley.

Hewitt said: "I am pleased that your work supports and fits with the ethos that the NHS provides a service that is responsive, personal to all and one that puts patients' needs at its centre.

"I read with interest the publications which provide a greater understanding of the role of not only Catholic chaplains but also hospital chaplaincy, in providing spiritual care for both patients and staff."

Lansley, meanswhile, said: "People admitted to hospital are often at their most vulnerable. At such a time, it is important to consider their spiritual and pastoral needs.

NHS staff are well trained to integrate such considerations into their care pathway, and these publications will help them achieve that in respect to the particular needs of Catholic patients."

Catholics in Healthcare will also support those in healthcare chaplaincy through good practice guidance and other resources as well as national liaison officers for chaplaincy and sources of advice to chaplains and Bishops' Advisers on Healthcare Chaplaincy.

It aims to hold a seminar annually to support Catholics working in healthcare and a number of regional events have already been planned to support health workers over the next year ahead of a major healthcare conference in 2008.