The programme is a Marie Curie Cancer Care initiative which aims to significantly increase the number of patients with terminal illnesses across the UK who are supported to be cared for and die at home.
Addressing key stakeholders at the launch, Thomas Hughes-Hallett, Chief Executive, Marie Curie Cancer Care, said:
“In three years’ time, I believe we will be looking back on this day as a day of great significance in end of life care in London. For this programme has the potential to really change the way people are cared for at the end of their lives by supporting them in making the choice over where they spend their final months.
“In south-east London, we will be working closely with local partners to develop a practical and effective model of palliative care service delivery, making care in the community a genuine option, while reducing the number of deaths in hospital.”
At the launch were more than 150 staff from the partner organisations who are working closely with Marie Curie Cancer Care to make the project a success. They include the area’s five Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) – Greenwich, Southwark, Lambeth, Lewisham, Bromley – as well as Bexley Care Trust, major hospitals, hospices, charities, mental health trusts, social services and the London Ambulance Service.
The project, which begins this month, is the largest ever undertaking in the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, covering a population of 1.5 million. The project will last for three years – the aim being that new services piloted during the project are handed over to local partners to be sustained over the longer term.
Speaking alongside Thomas Hughes-Hallett at the launch was Andrew Eyres, Acting Chief Executive at Lambeth Primary Care Trust. He said:
“At the moment, 71 per cent of people who die in south-east London each year are dying in hospital, which is well above the national average. We know that the majority of patients with terminal illnesses would choose to die at home if they could, and we expect that one of the changes this programme will bring about is providing more community-based services closer to where people live.”
In support of the project, Paul Corrigan, Director of Strategy and Commissioning, NHS London, said:
“Londoners want more choice about their care at the end of life. The exciting partnership between Marie Curie Cancer Care, the NHS and local authorities in south-east London provides us with an opportunity to ensure that they have that choice. While the NHS in London strives at all times to provide the public with equal access to the healthcare that they need, it takes a special organisation such as Marie Cure Cancer Care to help us achieve that goal with something as important and sensitive such as the care at the end of life. Their involvement and assistance is most welcome.”
TV presenter and journalist, Esther Rantzen, chaired the launch and shared some personal sentiments with the audience. She said:
“It’s been called the last great taboo – we’ll talk about everything else but not about death, the one great certainty. And yet the best legacy anyone can leave is the knowledge that they have carried out a loved one’s last wishes – so if we want to die at home, we must say so.”
For more information on the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, log on to www.deliveringchoiceprogramme.org.uk
ENDS
For more information, interviews and photographs from the event, please contact:
Rebecca Douglass, Communications Manager, Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme - Tel: 0207 599 7151 / email: rebecca.douglass@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 involves a partnership approach. In every project area, Marie Curie Cancer Care works closely with local providers of palliative care including the NHS, social services and voluntary organisations.
- The Lincolnshire project was launched in October 2004, followed by Tayside (Scotland) in October 2005, Leeds in May 2006, and Barnet (north London) in March 2007. The programme’s next project, and it’s largest yet, kicks off in south-east London during 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: designing new service models; and Phase III: implementing and monitoring the service models. After the three years, the view is to hand service improvements piloted in Phase III over to the local partners to be sustained over the longer term.
- The programme reaches patients with life-limiting illnesses – irrespective of diagnosis – and their carers.
- For the south-east London project, Lambeth Primary Care Trust (PCT) is representing the interests of the other five health trusts covering the area – Bromley PCT, Southwark PCT, Greenwich PCT, Lewisham PCT and Bexley Care Trust. The project will feed into the NHS’s Picture of Health for south-east London initiative.
- 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.
Marie Curie Cancer Care and the ‘Supporting the Choice to Die at Home’ campaign
- 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.
- For the past three years, Marie Curie Cancer Care has been campaigning for more patients to be able to make the choice to be cared for and die at home with its ‘Supporting the Choice to Die at Home’ campaign.
- Research commissioned by Marie Curie Cancer Care has found that most people in Great Britain 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. Only 4% of people would actually choose to die in hospital.
Issued on September 13, 2007
