Andy Kerr was joined by Marie Curie Cancer Care Director of Patient and Family Services Susan Munroe and Palliative Care Consultant, NHS Tayside Dr Martin Leiper.
The project, a collaboration between Marie Curie Cancer Care, NHS Tayside, Perth and Kinross, Dundee, and Angus Councils, and the Scottish Ambulance Service, aims to develop patient-focused 24 hour service models that serve local needs.
The charity hopes that that the programme will benefit patients and their carers by designing reliable palliative care services that will provide information, support and best possible care in the place of a patient's choice.
The programme will also benefit health care providers by arming them with service models based on better resource utilisation. Health care professionals will also benefit from the delivery of better ways of working.
Andy Kerr said:
"This is a worthwhile programme and we support the principles of partnership working across traditional boundaries to offer better choice to patients. I welcome initiatives that increase the choices of patients.
"We believe that terminally ill patients who choose to die at home should, where possible, have their wishes met. But we must acknowledge that cancer patients and their families may well find their choices change as the disease progresses towards end stage.
"I welcome the commitment of Marie Curie Cancer Care to exploring these issues with the investment they are making in services in Tayside. I am sure that whatever the outcome there will be much we can learn from this initiative."
Susan Munroe said:
"This is a very exciting project. Tayside has been selected as a flagship project because of its mix of urban and rural areas.
"People who are terminally ill want to be treated as individuals, not fitted into a system. Through the project parameters we will be able to address the specific needs of patients across the region whether in large towns and cities or smaller communities.
"By working together with other charities, the NHS, and social services, we can look at new methods of service provision to deliver quality care and greater patient choice. The launch of the Tayside project is the first step in helping us achieve that."
Dr Martin Leiper, Palliative Care Consultant, NHS Tayside said:
"We at NHS Tayside, and indeed all those individuals we care for, wholeheartedly welcome this exciting and much needed initiative.
"We are always looking at ways of improving palliative care and this programme represents a substantial step forward.
"Many patients I meet express the will to be cared for and to die in familiar surroundings with familiar carers. For many this is home. I know all the agencies involved will work together in this project to give more patients their choice and to share all we learn with the whole of Scotland."
Marie Curie Cancer Care approached their Tayside partners with the project after identifying clear health service requirements in the area, such as the need to integrate specialist services. Marie Curie Cancer Care will be providing substantial charitable funds to this project and in addition will seek funding from other sources.
December 2005
