New guide published to help public hold politicians to account on end of life care
Press release published
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Marie Curie and the National Council for Palliative Care will today (Wednesday 20 March) launch a new guide to help people in their local area scrutinise and hold MPs, GP Commissioners, councillors and other decision makers to account on end of life care. Published just two weeks before new reforms to the NHS come into effect in April 2013, which will see major changes to how care is commissioned and who is accountable, '10 Questions to ensure good end of life care in your area’ sets out the key information people need to champion end of life care in their local area. With almost 600,000 people dying in the UK each year, and millions more directly affected by the death of someone close to them, the new guide is intended to help ensure that end of life care is a top priority at a local level. As well as setting out ten questions to ask locally and suggestions of who to ask these questions of, the guide provides links to where people can find additional information about end of life care provision. In the foreword to the guide, Fabian Hamilton MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hospice and Palliative Care writes: "Although this booklet is for everybody, I hope that my parliamentary colleagues will also find it useful as they work to ensure their constituents get the care that they need. In England, on average, 4,250 people will die in each constituency during the lifetime of this Parliament. Thousands more will be bereaved as a result. We only have one chance to get it right for them and their families; there are no dress rehearsals for dying.” Imelda Redmond CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Marie Curie said: “Marie Curie provides high quality end of life care to over 35,000 terminally ill patients every year in their communities. We know that many more people face real problems accessing the care they need to ensure their loved ones have a dignified death in their place of choice. This publication will we hope will give the public a greater understanding of what local services should be available to them.” Simon Chapman, Director of Policy and Parliamentary Affairs at the National Council for Palliative Care said: “Whilst new organisations are having to focus on implementing the Government’s reform programme, people will still be reaching the end of life and they and their families will continue to need excellent care. We only get one chance to get it right for them and we mustn’t lose sight of them in this transition period. By ensuring that they are aware of the key questions to ask local politicians and other decision makers, members of the public can play an important role in holding them to account and helping to improve the quality of end of life care for everyone.” ’10 Questions to ensure good end of life care in your area’ is available to download at: www.mariecurie.org.uk/10questions -ENDS- |
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Notes to editor
Marie Curie is one of the UK’s largest charities. Employing more than 2,700 nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, it provided care to more than 35,000 terminally ill patients in the community and in its nine hospices last 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 provides core funding for three palliative care research facilities; the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Unit at University College London, the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool and the Marie Curie Palliative Care Centre at the Wales Cancer Trials Unit (Cardiff University). The charity also supports palliative and end of life care research through its project grant funding streams, the Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Programme (administered by Cancer Research UK) and the Dimbleby Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Fund.
Both research programmes aims to tackle the funding and knowledge gap in palliative and end of life care research, which in turn will benefit patients, families and carers. The charity 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 March 2013.
The right to die in place of choice
Research shows around 63 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 Cancer Care has been campaigning for more patients to be able to make the choice to be cared for and die in their place of choice.
The National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) is the umbrella charity for all those involved in palliative, end of life and hospice care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It also leads the Dying Matters Coalition which aims to help transform public attitudes towards dying, death and bereavement in england.
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