Rapid Response Healthcare Assistant, Louise Hill
Home deaths rose in the area from 19 per cent before the programme started to 23 per cent during its implementation.
The report found that more of those patients who used the service had died at home while the overall combined costs of care were unchanged.
42 per cent of cancer patients who used the programme were able to die at home, while the figure for patients who did not use the service remained at 19 per cent.
King’s Fund Chief Executive Niall Dickson said: “This shows that a more strategic use of local services can transform care at the end of life and these findings will be useful in taking forward our understanding of how to improve services in an area that has for far too long remained under-researched and under-supported.
“A health system should be judged on how well it treats all patients, including those at the end of life.”
Peter Crutchfied, Marie Curie Cancer Care’s Director of Development and Care Research, said: “We are delighted that the Kings Fund report shows that the partnership between the NHS, social care and the voluntary sector, as part of the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, has allowed more people at the end of their lives to be cared for and die in the place of their choice, which we know for most is home and that this has been achieved without increasing costs for the NHS or others.
“We hope that the results from Lincolnshire will encourage other areas to undertake similar initiatives to improve the care of those at the end of their lives.”
Click here to see the report.
The NHS is taking over funding of the Marie Curie Delivering Choice project in Lincolnshire – find out more here.
April 2008
