End-of-life institute gets £1 m Government grant

The Cicely Saunders Institute for Palliative Care (see artist’s impression) will enable leading researchers to work alongside each other, in a purpose-built £12.1 m building, for the first time ever, delivering high quality palliative care solutions, and providing education, patient information and support.

The announcement follows the recent launch of the End-of-Life Care Strategy, backed with £286 million of Government funding. The grant is part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to provide high quality care for all adults approaching the end of their life.

Cicely Saunders International, established in 2002 to promote and undertake research, teaching and training into palliative care, is working in partnership with King’s College London to build the new facility, which is due to for completion in November 2009.

It will bring together leading academics, healthcare professionals, community organisations, patients and carers. The Department of Health grant will help meet the costs of constructing and fitting the Institute with teaching space for researchers and students as well as public spaces for patients and healthcare professionals. The facility will also provide the capacity to: increase the numbers of doctors and nurses trained at King’s College London in best practice in end-of-life care; provide facilities for research to discover better ways to care for patients at home, support caregivers and prevent and control symptoms, and enable research to continue to examine support and treatments for conditions such as MS, end-stage renal disease, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cancer.

Ivan Lewis said: “People coming to the end of their lives and their loved ones deserve high quality, compassionate and dignified care, on their own terms. This new funding will help make this a reality and signals our determination to build up research and increase the evidence base underpinning end-of-life care.

“This new project will bring leading clinicians and researchers together, enabling the Institute to roll out the most advanced palliative care research and teaching, which will deliver real benefits to patients.”