Yunus Dudhwala, Imam, Head of Chaplaincy and Bereavement Services at the Barts Health NHS Trust, filmed in artist's studio in October 2020.
Yunus Dudhwala is an imam and Head of Chaplaincy at Barts Health NHS Trust, overseeing religious, spiritual, and pastoral care for patients, staff, and visitors across Newham, Whipps Cross, Royal London, Barts, and Mile End hospitals. He manages multi‑faith chaplains, priests, rabbis, imams, and ensures all communities are supported. Newham is a deeply community‑based hospital. After twenty years there,Yunus Dudhwala know many staff and local families. This closeness is special but also means he is often contacted day and night.
As COVID emerged, local mosques debated closing. Early hospital deaths showed that Muslim communities were being hit very hard. After hearing from an ED doctor about the severity of cases, some mosques immediately closed. During this time, Yunus Dudhwala was asked to help set up chaplaincy, bereavement, and mortuary processes for the new Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre.
He recalls how a major crisis developed around Muslim burial rituals. Only one place in London was willing to wash COVID bodies, creating huge pressure as deaths rose. Washing the body is essential for families, so he consulted WHO, CDC, and Public Health England guidance to confirm it could be done safely with PPE. Training videos were produced and helped several East London mosques open washing facilities to ease demand. Cemeteries were overwhelmed, one was performing 16 burials a day with a two‑day backlog.
Yunus Dudhwala divided his time between Excel and Newham and he was also giving nightly talks from the mosque, streamed online, explaining the pandemic from an Islamic perspective. Eventually he developed a fever and immediately isolated for 14 days. He contimued pastoral support by video call from his bedroom. Several patients he knew deteriorated and died. He prayed with families and patients virtually as they passed away. These experiences were powerful and emotionally intense.
Yunus Dudhwala reflects on PPE barriers and how staff still expressed profound compassion. He remembers a nurse at Excel silently stroking a dying patient’s hair and holding her hand for over an hour. These small acts of humanity were as important as any clinical intervention. Historically, communities coped with death through collective support, not formal counselling. Modern society is more individualistic, so people, often lack that communal buffer and may need bereavement services. Still, faith and community remain essential sources of strength. Life and death are a natural process for Yunus Dudhwala, the only thing we control is how we live each day. His philosophy is to be prepared, do good, and serve others. That is enough.
Death from Covid, Teamwork, Impact on family, Public Health, Preparedness, Leadership, Difficult conversations, PPE, Faith, Health inequalities, Management role.