Part of the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, the interventions, which are pilots and have been given the green light by local partners and stakeholders, are as follows:
- A dedicated, customised palliative care ambulance and trained team
- Improving the provision of palliative care in care homes
- Helping people in ethnic minority communities to reach palliative care services
- Dedicated education and training for professionals working with patients with palliative care needs
Pioneered by charity Marie Curie Cancer Care, the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme aims to develop and help provide the best possible palliative care services so that terminally ill patients can be cared for and die in their place of choice.
The programme’s Leeds project is also progressing proposals for four more interventions, which will be presented to local partners and stakeholders in April for approval, making the total number of interventions eight. These are: setting up flexible community teams to provide emergency and planned care to patients in their homes; providing more support for patients and carers; developing a system of correctly identifying palliative patients; and supporting patients who want to be discharged from hospital or a hospice to their preferred place of care.
Leeds Project Manager, Rachel Nixon, said:
"The charity's research has found that 64 per cent of people would prefer to die at home, but the reality is very different and half of all patients still die in hospitals. We've been hard at work for the past 10 months evaluating local palliative care needs in Leeds, assessing the state of the current services and developing new models. The interventions we are implementing aim to develop and improve upon the services that are already there and help many more patients make the choice over where they are cared for.”
The programme also has projects in Lincolnshire and Tayside which, like the Leeds project, run for a three year period. In the final two years of each project a number of interventions are piloted, after which time the view is to hand these over to local partners to be sustained over the longer term.
“Our research has found that, if diagnosed with a terminal illness, many residents of care homes would wish to remain there to be cared for and die,” Rachel said. “The appointment of two facilitators who will support care home staff to enhance the provision of palliative care in care homes has raised much interest from care homes that are keen to work with us.
“The appointment of an ethnic minority link worker will also address the barriers that ethnic minority communities across Leeds face in accessing palliative care. This person will work closely with the different communities around the city, with a view to developing strong relationships and helping them to gain access to the services they need.”
The project is working closely with local partners to develop and roll out the interventions: the Leeds PCT, the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, Social Services, St Gemma’s Hospice and Sue Ryder Care – Wheatfields Hospice.
Claire Jones, Assistant Director Business Development, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said:
“The new ambulance is all about responding to patients with palliative care needs in a flexible and timely manner, by staff who have undergone palliative care training, while ensuring the highest standards of comfort and safety.
“When a patient is in the last days of their life and time is so precious – transfer to the place where they wish to die is so important both for them and their families. The main aim of this service will ensure that patients with palliative care needs can be transported in a swift, responsive and empathetic way.”
Fiona Hicks, Consultant in Palliative Medicine and Clinical Director for Palliative Care, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said:
“It is really exciting to be so close to seeing the interventions get off the ground. In the 15 years I have worked in palliative care in Leeds, a lot of things have changed for the better, but there are still major problems for patients in realising their choices. This project is realising a great opportunity to really change the way palliative care is delivered for the better and give patients the choice they deserve to be able to make.”
To find out more about the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme and its work in Leeds, log on to www.deliveringchoiceprogramme.org.uk
Ends
For more information and interviews, please contact Rebecca Douglass, Communications Manager, Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme on 0207 599 7151 or e-mail rebecca.douglass@mariecurie.org.uk
Notes to editors:
- The Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, pioneered by leading charity Marie Curie Cancer Care, aims 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. For most people, this choice is to die at home.
- 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.
- So far, the programme has three flagship projects up and running around the UK – in Lincolnshire, Tayside (Scotland), and Leeds – and, working towards national roll-out, plans to launch more in 2007.
- Launched in May 2006, the Leeds project was the third to get underway.
- Every project runs for three years and involves three phases: Phase I: understanding the current state of services within the project area; Phase II: 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.
- The programme reaches terminally ill patients with both cancer and non-cancer diagnoses and their carers.
- Since its inception in 2004, the programme has helped push palliative care up the political agenda, and the government’s proposals for End of Life Networks to be set up across England by 2009 are drawing inspiration from the programme.
- Research commissioned by Marie Curie Cancer Care has found that most people would like to be cared for at home (64%) or in a hospice (23%) if they were terminally ill, but the reality is that half of all patients still die in hospitals.
Issued on February 22, 2007
