The launch event will take place at Maunsel House, North Newton, North Petherton from 4 – 6pm. Speakers include Dr Will Warin, GP and Clinical Chair of the Darzi South West End of Life Clinical Pathway Group; Chris Born, Chief Executive of North Somerset Primary Care Trust; and Thomas Hughes-Hallett, Chief Executive of Marie Curie Cancer Care.
The Somerset project will cover a population of nearly 700,000 people and will last for a period of three years. The project will cover the entire region of Somerset Primary Care Trust and the Weston-Super-Mare and surrounding area of North Somerset Primary Care Trust.
Somerset has been selected as a site for the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme because of some of its unique barriers to palliative care. More than 65 per cent of all deaths in the area in 2005 were linked to cancer and heart disease.
Somerset’s large ageing population can also expect an increase in demand for palliative care with an estimated caseload of more than 3,200 patients annually. Over the next 20 years, the projected growth of the over 65 year old population is anticipated to be 32 percent in Somerset and 61 percent in North Somerset. This increase in number makes necessary the development of better palliative care services to meet the needs of future population.
Marie Curie Cancer Care’s research has found that most people (65 per cent) in the UK would like to die at home if they had a terminal illness, yet at the moment only one in five do so. In Somerset, only 18 per cent of people are able to die at home. The Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme aims to double the number of people who are able to die in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes, across the UK.
Thomas Hughes-Hallett, Chief Executive, Marie Curie Cancer Care, said:
“The Somerset Delivering Choice Project will be our biggest project in the south west of England, and quite challenging in terms of the ageing population in the area. We aim to help deliver better palliative care to more patients and their carers than ever before.”
Jane Barrie OBE, Chair of Somerset Primary Care Trust, said:
“The Somerset/North Somerset Partnership is delighted to have been selected for this Programme. We will be working collaboratively with local organisations, with patients and carers, with Marie Curie and with the other Delivering Choice sites to ensure that we use this opportunity to develop the very best palliative care services.”
To deliver the Somerset project, the charity will work closely with local partners to assess the state of palliative care services in the area, identify barriers to delivering palliative care, and design new service models to address these. These models will be piloted for the final two years of the project, the aim being that these will be carried forward by local partners at the project’s conclusion to be sustained over the longer term.
Already on board as stakeholders are: Somerset Primary Care Trust, North Somerset Primary Care Trust, Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Weston Area Health NHS Trust, Somerset Palliative Care Partnership, Somerset County Council, North Somerset Council, St Margaret’s Somerset Hospice, Weston Hospicecare, Dorothy House Hospice Care, Somerset Partnership NHS and Social Care Trust, South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Care Home Providers Association, WyvernHealth.Com, the Weston Practice Based Commissioning Cluster, Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire Cancer Services and Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
Eva Morrison, Public Affairs Manager, Marie Curie Cancer Care, on 0207 599 7703 / eva.morrison@mariecurie.org.uk
Notes to editors:
The Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme
- The Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme was pioneered by Marie Curie Cancer Care to develop and help provide the best possible services for palliative care, in order to give people with terminal illnesses the choice over where they are cared for and die.
- The programme reaches patients who are terminally ill – regardless of diagnosis – and their carers.
- The programme involves a partnership approach. Working with the NHS, social services and the voluntary sector, it works to understand the current state of services in specific project areas and redesign those that are inadequate, as well as introduce new services so that the specific palliative care needs of local communities are properly addressed.
- There are already five other projects underway in the Delivering Choice Programee. The Lincolnshire project was launched in October 2004, followed by Tayside (Scotland) in October 2005, Leeds in May 2006, Barnet (North London) in March 2007, and in South East London in September 2007.
- Every project runs for three years and involves three phases – Phase I: understanding the current state of services within the project area; Phase II: improving existing services and designing new service models; and Phase III: implementing and monitoring the service models. After the three years, the view is to hand the interventions over to the local partners to be sustained over the longer term.
- Since its inception in 2004, the programme has helped push palliative care up the political agenda. The government’s proposals for End of Life Networks to be set up across England by 2009 are drawing inspiration from the programme.
- The Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme is independently evaluated by a research team at Lancaster University, led by Professor Sheila Payne, as well as research think-tank, the King’s Fund.
- Results from the Delivering Choice Programme in Boston, Lincolnshire show that for patients benefiting front the services:
- Deaths at home are UP from 17 per cent to 42 per cent.
- Deaths in hospital are DOWN from 63 per cent to 45 per cent.
- Total costs for end of life care did not increase.
Marie Curie Cancer Care
- Marie Curie Cancer Care is one of the UK’s largest charities. It is the lead provider of specialist palliative care, and its nurses care for half of all patients with cancer who die at home.
- Employing more than 2,700 nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, the charity provides care to around 25,000 people with cancer every year, and also supports their families.
- The charity also cares for people with life-limiting illnesses other than cancer, and its services are always free of charge to patients and their families, which means that in 2007-08, it will need to raise more than £100 million.
- Marie Curie Cancer Care has 10 hospices across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and two centres for palliative care research. It also runs the world-renowned Marie Curie Research Institute, which investigates the causes and treatments of cancer.
- Research commissioned by Marie Curie Cancer Care has found that most people in Great Britain would like to be cared for at home (65 per cent) or in a hospice (23 per cent) if they were terminally ill, but the reality is that half of all patients still die in hospitals. Only 4 per cent of people would actually choose to die in hospital.
