Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis 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.

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."

(CD/JM)