NHS Trusts to receive research "check-up" at NHS Confed

NHS Trust CEOs are being invited to undergo a clinical research "health-check " for their Trust at this year's NHS Confederation Annual Conference (20-22 June, Manchester Central).

 All NHS Trusts are committed, through the NHS Constitution, to promoting opportunities for patients to take part in clinical research studies.  But until now, no figures have been published to show how individual Trusts are delivering on that duty across the different therapy areas.

 The National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network provides support for the delivery clinical trials in the NHS in England, and therefore collects a wide range of data on research performance.

 On Stand B5 at this year's Confed, the NIHR Clinical Research Network will launch a new tool to reveal each individual Trust's "vital statistics" for clinical research.  This includes how many clinical research studies the Trust took part in last year, how many patients it recruited, and how much research is being done across a range of medical conditions.

 The NIHR Clinical Research Network's CEO, Dr Jonathan Sheffield, explains:

 "Research should be core business across all therapy areas in the NHS, but in reality there is a mixed picture.  We know that cancer patients stand a very good opportunity of being offered a place in a clinical study, but it can be more patchy in other areas of medicine.  By showing each NHS Trust a snapshot of their research activity, split by disease area, we can help them to understand where they might want to develop their research offer to patients.  It's about driving a research culture in the NHS, and making sure we give all patients the ability to take part in suitable studies if they want to."

 As well as the stand, the NIHR Clinical Research Network will also be delivering a seminar on the health-check process on Thursday at 1pm, at a special showcase area in the main exhibition hall.