Marie Curie responds to new King’s College London research that finds “care homes could overtake hospitals as most common place to die”
Comment published
Marie Curie responds to new King’s College London research that finds “care homes could overtake hospitals as most common place to die”
Simon Jones, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Marie Curie, said:
“This research from the Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London, serves to underline the important role that care homes play in end of life care. Yet, we cannot ignore the simple truth that too many people in care homes are effectively cut off from the specialist care and support they need and deserve towards the end of life.
“Those responsible for planning and resourcing our health and social care services will ignore the findings of this research at their peril, and more importantly, at the cost of poorer quality of life at the end of life for increasing numbers of people.
“Without the right resources and investment in place to support care homes, now and in the future, more vulnerable people will die in unnecessary pain and distress.”
ENDS
Notes to editor
Notes to Editors:
About the publication
The published research is from the Cicely Saunders Institute, and funded by Cicely Saunders International. The reference for the paper is:
Bone AE, Gomes B, Etkind SN, Verne J, Murtagh FEM, Evans CJ, and Higginson IJ. What is the impact of population ageing on the future provision of end-of-life care? Population-based projections of place of death. Palliative Medicine. 2017.
The publication can be found here:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269216317734435
About King’s College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2016/17 QS World University Rankings) and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 29,600 students (of whom nearly 11,700 are graduate students) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 8,000 staff.
King's has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), eighty-four per cent of research at King’s was deemed ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (3* and 4*).
Since our foundation, King’s students and staff have dedicated themselves in the service of society. King’s will continue to focus on world-leading education, research and service, and will have an increasingly proactive role to play in a more interconnected, complex world. Visit our website to find out more about Vision 2029, King’s strategic vision for the next 12 years to 2029, which will be the 200th anniversary of the founding of the university. For further information about King's, please visit the King's in Brief web pages.
About the Cicely Saunders Institute
The Cicely Saunders Institute is the world’s first purpose built Institute for Palliative Care and Rehabilitation, named after Dame Cicely Saunders (1918–2005), recognized internationally as the founder of the modern hospice movement 50 years ago. The Institute is a partnership of Cicely Saunders International, King’s College London and associated local clinical services to bring together clinical and academic teams to innovate, discover, evaluate and translate solutions to improve care, symptom control and quality of life for patients and families affected by serious and progressive illnesses.
About Cicely Saunders International
Cicely Saunders International (Registered Charity No. 1087195) is the world’s leading charity promoting and supporting best practice and quality research in end of life and palliative care to improve the care and treatment of all those affected by progressive illness and to make high quality palliative care available to everyone who needs it.