PRESS RELEASE

Marie Curie to invest £.5m to support end of life services in Surrey

For immediate release
January 16, 2008 (sic)

Marie Curie Cancer Care has announced today (Friday) that it has offered Surrey PCT £500,000 funding for 2009/10 to ease the transfer of services from its hospice at Caterham if, at the end of the current consultation process, the decision is taken to close the hospice.

The charity has also offered to invest up to £500,000 in the Marie Curie Nursing Service from 2010 onwards, enabling it to reach hundreds of more patients every year in Surrey as a whole.

Marie Curie Cancer Care's Chief Executive Thomas Hughes-Hallett said
"We have had outstanding support for the hospice for many years and this is the most difficult issue I have ever had to face as Chief Executive. Change is difficult and we regret the distress this move has caused patients, the community, volunteers and staff. However this is not about cutting costs. This is about providing the best possible palliative care services for more people across Surrey. The £500,000 we are pledging will allow us to treble the Marie Curie Nursing Service across Surrey, giving more terminally ill patients the choice to die at home, surrounded by their families.”

For further information:
Contact
Alex Holdaway, Head of Public Relations, 0207 599 7702 or 07884 311 035
Eva Morrison, Public Affairs Manager, 0207 599 7703

Notes to editors

Marie Curie Cancer Care is one of the UK’s largest charities. Employing more than 2,700 nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, it expects to provide care to around 27,000 terminally ill patients in the community and in its 10 hospices this year and is the largest provider of hospice beds outside the NHS.

Funding
Around 70 per cent of the charity’s income comes from the generous support of thousands of individuals, membership organisations and businesses, with the balance of our funds coming from the NHS. In 2008/09 it needs to raise £115 million.

Marie Curie Nurses
The charity is best known for its network of Marie Curie Nurses working in the community to provide end-of-life care, totally free for patients in their own homes.

Research
The charity has two centres for palliative care research, The Marie Curie Palliative Care Unit in London and The Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute in Liverpool. It also runs the world-renowned Marie Curie Research Institute, which investigates the causes and treatments of cancer.

Campaigning

Supporting the choice to die at home
Research shows around 65 per cent of people would like to die at home if they had a terminal illness, with a sizeable minority opting for hospice care. However, more than 50 per cent of cancer deaths still occur in hospital, the place people say they would least like to be. Since 2004 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.

Delivering Choice Programme
In 2004 Marie Curie Cancer Care launched its first major palliative care service improvement plan, the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, to provide greater choice for patients in end of life care.
The programme has six projects underway across the UK- in Lincolnshire, Leeds, Tayside (Scotland), Barnet (north London), south-east London and Somerset.