Northampton General Hospital chaplain retires after 28 years
The chaplaincy team supports the religious, spiritual and pastoral needs of everyone on the hospital site, including patients, visitors and staff.Reverend Sarmezey had previously worked as an assistant priest in Bristol and Swindon and carried out visiting on wards at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. He said he applied for the job after seeing it advertised in The Church Times.
'Don't really retire'
One of the highlights of his time at the hospital, he said, was working on a 2008 project with the King's Fund to refurbish a bereavement suite."The big cultural change... was rather than the families going to the wards to collect the paperwork, they would be able to talk to a dedicated bereavement officer and that was a huge positive change," he said.He plans to take holidays, pick up the guitar again, and continue leading services locally."I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also very aware that priests don't really retire!" he added. The hospital's director of nursing thanked the reverend for his "incredible support for our patients, their families and all of our colleagues"."His friendly, reassuring, and deeply sensitive, approach has been invaluable and very much appreciated during his 28 years of dedicated service," said Jo Smith."He has made such a difference to the services we provide our patients and staff."
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