Marie Curie welcomes Demos report on end of life care
Comment published
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New research from Demos estimates that an investment of £500m a year would fund the backbone for community services that would allow to die at or close to home. Commenting on the publication of the report - Dying for Change, Tom Hughes-Hallett, Chief Executive of Marie said: "Marie Curie welcomes this report which highlights the issues that we have been campaigning on since 2004. Most people would choose to die at home but in reality the majority die in hospital. Marie Curie Nurses provide free end of life care to people with terminal cancer and other illnesses in their own homes, and we have demonstrated through our pioneering Delivering Choice Programme, that people can have this choice at no extra cost to the public. There is now an urgent need for charities, service providers and the NHS to work together to turn people's wishes into a reality." -ENDS- |
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Marie Curie 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 29,000 terminally ill patients in the community and in its hospices this year and is the largest provider of hospice beds outside the NHS.
Funding
Around 70 per cent of the charity’s income comes from the generous support of thousands of individuals, membership organisations and businesses, with the balance of our funds coming from the NHS.
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.
Research
The charity has two centres for palliative care research, The Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Unit at University College London and The Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute in Liverpool.
It also funds seven fundamental scientific research groups which investigate the causes and treatments of cancer. This research was previously carried out at the Marie Curie Research Institute in Oxted, Surrey. The programmes are now located in universities around the country, and will receive funding from the charity until 2012.
Supporting the choice to die at home
Research shows around 65 per cent of people would like to die at home if they had a terminal illness, 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 has been campaigning for more patients to be able to make the choice to be cared for and die at home.
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