Nurse suspended after offering to get patient a witch-doctor

Nurse Caroline Billingsworth was suspended in December after a patient she was visiting objected to the offer of a prayer to aid in her recovery and having a local Shaman visit to boost her juju.

"She was very, very caring," said Belinda Worthing, 70, a patient from North Somerset. "But I really didn't fancy her offer of having a goat slaughtered and its entrails read on my kitchen table."

Nurse Billingsworth says she puts great faith in an otherworldly supreme presence that is doing amazing things in her life and she is keen to offer assistance to help patients with their recovery.

"Of course I normally start with a simple prayer," said Billingsworth. "However once you have opened Pandora's Mumbo-Jumbo box, then why stop at Christianity? Several of my patients welcome the attention of a West African witch-doctor and having their diagnosis confirmed by a throw of his Sheep Knuckles."

According to the complaint filed with the local NHS Trust, Billingsworth then asked if Mrs Worthing had been good during the year, because Father Christmas had been watching and may give her a present of being healthy again. However Billingsworth denied that this took place.

"Mrs Worthing is a lovely old dear, but you know she is 70," said the suspended nurse. "She was confused by which mystical overseer with a large beard who frightens people into good behaviour and deals in favours I was talking about. I was referring to the Maharishi."

North Somerset NHS Trust said that it suspended Nurse Billingsworth pending an investigation, but said that it was in not way trying to restrict the religious practices of any of its staff.

A spokesman for the NHS was sympathetic with the Nurse's predicament: "To be honest, what with MRSA, rat infestations and the like, a patient may as well start praying as coming to one of our hospitals."