Marie Curie Cancer Care today has launched a major campaign, Scotland Supporting the Choice to Die at Home, which calls on the Scottish Executive to enable more terminally ill cancer patients to achieve their wish to die at home.
As part of the launch, the charity has published the results of economic and public opinion research into awareness of and attitudes to end of life care. This highlights the ‘choice' gap at the end of life, where 75% of people say if they had a terminal illness they would like to die at home, but only 25% are likely to achieve their wish.
This YouGov poll also shows that while 57% of those questioned were aware they could choose to die at home, 43% were either ‘not very aware' or ‘not at all aware'. A further dedicated survey in the Scottish Parliament revealed that 73% of MSPs would prefer to die at home.
Practical obstacles such as lack of medical facilities were cited by 62%, with 58% considering that lack of available nursing care was a key barrier. For this reason, the charity believes that attracting government funding to increase available resources and raise awareness of ‘end of life' care services in the home will assist more Scottish people to achieve their choice to die at home.
Susan Munroe, Caring Services Manager for Marie Curie Cancer in Scotland, commented:
“All the research shows that most people would choose to be at home –surrounded by friends and family, pets and familiar objects – at the end of life. A significant minority would opt for hospice care, and no-one really wants to be in hospital, but that's where half of all cancer deaths still occur. The care provided in hospitals is excellent, but they're just not the place where most of us would want to spend our final days.
“As a result, we want to tackle the barriers that prevent people from dying at home. This means addressing making appropriate information about choice more readily available to patients, families and healthcare professionals. Also, it is about investing in additional resources for easily accessible care – such as more training for nurses and carers, and improved support for families.”
The campaign also calls on the Scottish Executive to examine a report which suggests every £1 spent on caring for the terminally ill patients in the community will free up £2 back in NHS hospitals.
Susan Munroe explains:
“Our economic research calculated that for every £1 extra invested in palliative care at home, £2 worth of acute care in NHS hospitals can be freed up. This shows that palliative care in the home can actually help the NHS target funds where they can be of most use.
”With around 15,000 cancer deaths in Scotland each year, the cost of doubling the number of people who die at home would be around £7.5 million annually, but that could free up £15 million of resources back in hospitals.”
She concludes:
“We know public support for the aim of the campaign is overwhelming and we would urge members of the public to demonstrate that support by writing to their MSP or visiting our website.”
Marie Curie Cancer Care will be working in partnership with the NHS, the voluntary sector, other health and social care providers to promote the aims of the campaign over the coming months.
June 2005
