World's First End-Of-Life Research Institute to Be Built in UK

By Jon Land, 24dash.com

August 22, 2008

United Kingdom

Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis today announced a £1 millon grant to help build the world's first purpose-built institute for research into end of life care.

The Cicely Saunders Institute for Palliative Care will enable leading researchers to work alongside each other in a purpose built building for the first time ever and deliver high quality palliative care solutions to patients, as well as providing education, patient information and support.

This follows on from the recently launched 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 is working in partnership with King's College London to build the Institute.

Cicely Saunders International was set up in 2002 to promote and carry out research, teaching and training into palliative care. The Institute is based at Kings College Hospital in South East London and is internationally recognised in palliative care research.

It has made an important contribution to our understanding of end of life care and helped to inform the recent End of Life Care Strategy.

The new building 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 new building will also provide the capacity to:

* Increase the numbers of doctors and nurses trained at Kings 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

* 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.

Care Services Minister, Ivan Lewis said: "I am delighted to announce this £1m grant for the Cicely Saunders Institute, a world leader in palliative care research and information.

"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 to make this a reality and signals our determination to build up research and increase the evidence base underpinning end of life care services. It shows further support for the End of Life Care Strategy we published in July.

"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."

Professor Irene Higginson, Scientific Director at Cicely Saunders International and Head of the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation, King's College London said: "The support of the Department of Health for the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care is wonderful news and will enable us to continue Dame Cicely Saunders' vision to improve the care and treatment of all patients with progressive illness and to make high-quality palliative care available to everyone who needs it - be it in hospice, hospital or home.

"As the population lives longer, reductions in acute disease will mean many more people will need palliative care and support to live as well as possible, even as they approach the end of their lives.

"We look forward to continuing our work with the Department of Health in achieving this aim through our research, education and support programme at the Institute."

Bringing clinicians, researchers and teaching together in this new building will help ensure research is directed by clinical, patient and family concerns and that findings can be quickly translated into practice and policy.

This funding will enable the Institute to open on time and avoid delay in the start of the programme of research the Institute will undertake.
The building is scheduled to be finished by November 2009. 

Copyright © Global Action on Aging
Terms of Use  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us