Marie Curie welcomes government's first ever end of life care strategy

• End of life care now a priority for the National Health Service
• Strategy sets out how NHS should locally develop effective services

Marie Curie Cancer Care has welcomed the government’s publication of the first ever end of life care strategy.

This plan will cover the whole of England and sets out a comprehensive framework for caring for people, with dignity and respect, at the end of their lives.

In particular, Marie Curie Cancer Care welcomes the commitments given to:

• Raising the profile of end of life care
• Recognising that most people would prefer to be cared for at home at the end of their lives, wherever possible
• Rapid response services in the community
• More support for families as well as patients
• Better co-ordination of care across organisational boundaries and quality standards for end of life care
• Improved care in hospitals and in care homes as well as in the community
• Further research in end of life care
• Increased and improved training in relation to care for the dying and embedding this training as a core competence for all health and social care staff;
• Fuller information and an end of life care intelligence network; and
• Monitoring of the investment and of progress in implementation

Commenting on these commitments, Dr Teresa Tate, Medical Adviser for Marie Curie Cancer Care said:

“We recognise that it is the actual implementation of the Strategy, not its publication, which will make the real difference. Marie Curie Cancer Care is therefore pleased to see the extra resources which the Government is making available to support the roll out of the Strategy.

“Through our Delivering Choice Programme we have shown that it is possible to double the number of people supported to spend their final days at home - at no extra cost to the government.

“We look forward to working with the NHS locally to help deliver end of life care to all those who need it, turning the Strategy into reality for patients and families.”

Hugh Grant, Marie Curie’s ambassador said:

“Since 2004 Marie Curie Cancer Care has campaigned hard for the public to have the choice to die at home. I am delighted to see that the Government is now honouring its 2005 Manifesto pledge to double investment in end of life care.”

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ENDS

For further information contact:

Marie Curie Public Relations
Alex Holdaway, Head of Public Relations 07884 311 035 or alex.holdaway@mariecurie.org.uk
or
Eva Morrison, Public Affairs Manager, 020 7599 7703 or eva.morrison@mariecurie.org.uk

For more information, please visit www.mariecurie.org.uk

Notes to editors

Marie Curie Cancer Care
Marie Curie Cancer Care is one of the UK’s largest charities. Employing more than 2,700 nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, it expects to provide care to around 27,000 terminally ill patients in the community and in its 10 hospices this year. The charity is the largest provider of hospice beds outside the NHS.

Funding
Marie Curie Cancer Care’s services are provided totally free of charge to the patient - two thirds of the costs are paid for through the £115 million we need to raise this year and a third is covered by our partners in the NHS across the UK.

Marie Curie Nurses
The charity is best known for its network of Marie Curie Nurses working in the community to provide end-of-life care, totally free for patients in their own homes. They work typically nine hour shifts usually at night but now also during the day and twilight hours to suit individual families’ needs.

Research
The charity has two centres for palliative care research, the Marie Curie Palliative Care Unit in London and the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute in Liverpool. It also runs the world-renowned Marie Curie Research Institute, which investigates the causes and treatments of cancer.

Campaigning

Supporting the choice to die at home
Research from the charity shows around that two thirds (65%) of people would want to be cared for at home if they were terminally ill, with a sizeable minority opting for hospice care. However, more than 50 per cent of cancer deaths still occur in hospital, the place people say they would least like to be. Since 2004 Marie Curie Cancer Care has been campaigning for more patients to be able to make the choice to be cared for and die at home.

Delivering Choice Programme
In 2004 Marie Curie Cancer Care launched its first major palliative care service improvement plan, the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, to provide greater choice for patients in end of life care. The programme has six projects underway across the UK - in Lincolnshire, Leeds, Tayside (Scotland), Barnet (north London), south-east London and Somerset.

Wednesday July 16, 2008