New funding for palliative care pilot

Great Ormond Street Hospital is to receive a share of £1.8million for end-of-life care services in London.Dr Finella Craig, Consultant in Paediatric Palliative Medicine at Great Ormond Street Hospital, has welcomed new funding for palliative care. She said:

"The Louis Dundas Centre for Children’s Palliative Care at Great Ormond Street Hospital is delighted to join in a unique collaboration of children’s hospitals, hospices and community teams across England in gathering the data necessary to create an equitable and transparent funding scheme.

"We welcome the government’s support in identifying and addressing the challenges faced by these children, young people and their families and their commitment to the provision of improved services in the home, hospital and community.”

The Department of Health press release is below: please note that Great Ormond Street Hospital led a bid on behalf of three London palliative care networks.

For media enquiries, please contact the Department of Health news desk on 020 7210 5221.

More people in London should be able to spend their final days in a place of their choice and new Government funding will help to make this happen, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced today.

The current system of end of life care does not work well enough - some patients receive excellent care while others miss out. NHS funding for palliative care services is often poorly distributed, with the voluntary sector having to bear an unfair share of the costs.

A new fairer funding system is needed but essential information needed to develop a system doesn’t exist. Eight pilot sites – with a share of £1.8 million - will collect this vital information.

Two of the pilot sites receiving funding are in London. St Christopher’s Hospice, an adult pilot site, will receive £200,000 and Great Ormond Street, which is part of a consortium pilot area for children’s palliative care services, will receive a share of £400,000.

Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley said:

"It is important that both children and adults, their families and carers get the right care and support at the end of their lives. This includes being able to choose where they die.

"We need a fairer funding system so people don’t miss out one this essential support. This will ensure all qualified providers of end of life care, whether they be statutory, voluntary or independent, are fairly funded. The pilots will have an essential role in helping us in this work."

Professor Sir Mike Richards, Chairman of the Palliative Care Funding Working Group, which considered all the bids to be pilot sites, said:

"The Palliative Care Funding Review recognised that palliative care is a very complex area and that we just do not have the essential information needed to develop a new funding system. The pilots will collect this vital information and help the Government meet its aim of having a new per-patient funding system for both adult and children’s palliative care services."

Dame Barbara Monroe, Chief Executive of St Christopher’s Hospice, said:

"St Christopher’s has a long history of being in the forefront of providing high quality palliative and end of life care. It is important that we have a funding system that is responsive to the needs of patients and fairly supports the work of all providers of care. We and our partner organisations are excited about being selected to contribute to this work."
Dr Sheila Shribman, National Clinical Director for Children, Young People and Maternity Services, said:

"I welcome the pilots very much as it brings us closer to a fairer funding system for all providers of children's palliative care, and also puts children and their families in the driving seat."

The pilot sites will collect data over two years up to 2014 with the new funding system being introduced from 2015.