TERMINALLY ill people on the Fylde Coast will soon have the choice of whether or not they wish to die at home, after the government announced a £12 million boost for palliative care services.

A share of the money -- the exact amount will be announced shortly -- will go to Cumbria and Lancashire NHS Strategic Health Authority. Up until now the authority has only been able to offer a 'very small proportion' of people a choice of where they want to die, a health authority spokeswoman said.

"But now, the new money will allow the development of training programme for primary care teams, so that they can learn from the expertise of organisations such as Macmillan Cancer Relief and Marie Curie Cancer Care, and provide the necessary care in a wide range of settings, at home, or in nursing and care homes," she added.

And to ensure the wishes of patients and carers are heard, the government has also adopted three new 'frameworks' for best practice, including one designed by the Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Network.

The 'preferred place of care' framework came into being three years ago as part of the government funded National Plan for Cancer. Anne Howard, nurse director for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Network, explained: "The government ring-fenced some money to develop training and education for community staff. But this alone was not enough to enable patients to say where they wanted to die. So we developed a simple assessment tool, a document that is filled in by the patient and their carers with their nursing staff -- an end of life care plan that is fairly well binding on all the teams of staff who provide the NHS services."

She added: "This is a nurse-led, patient focused initiative. It is wonderful at last to see patients who may not have long to live given the choices to which they are entitled and best for them."

Wendy Swift, chief executive of Blackpool Primary Care Trust, and chair of the network, welcomed the funding and frameworks.

"Our hope is that it will mean much more comfort and support for the many people who want to end their days at home in a familiar environment, surrounded by their loved ones and their families," she said.