Rise in clinical research at Plymouth Hospitals
Clinical research is on the rise in the NHS, and Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is helping to spearhead the trend, highlighted by new figures in a league table published last week.
Clinical research is a vital part of the work of the NHS, and provides evidence about ‘what works’ so that treatments for patients can be improved. In addition, there is research evidence to show that patients do better in hospitals and surgeries that do research – even if they don’t actually take part in a study themselves.
Year on year, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is increasing the number of studies carried out. In 2011/12 we undertook 144, 2012/13 there were 165 studies and last year (2013/14) 198 studies were carried out.
Lisa Vickers, Research and Development Manager said, “Plymouth has again increased the number of patients recruited to clinical research studies. Year on year, Plymouth expands its research portfolio, with new areas, like respiratory diseases and rheumatology, becoming very active in research. This can only benefit patients as they then have access to the latest treatments in these well designed studies”.
Commenting on this year’s league table, Jonathan Sheffield is Chief Executive Officer of the NIHR Clinical Research Network, said: “It’s great to see a real appetite for research in Plymouth. I would like to thank all the patients and carers who have taken part in research, and thereby made a contribution to improving NHS treatments for everyone.”
“I would also like to congratulate Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust for increasing their number of studies. We know that research is something that patients really value and these Trusts are creating the opportunities for patients to get involved.”
The league table is published by the National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network, the research delivery arm of the NHS. It shows the number of studies undertaken by each NHS Trust from April 2013 to March 2014, and the number of patients who volunteered to take part in clinical research.
Over half of the NHS Trusts across the country increased the number of clinical research studies undertaken in their Trust last year, contributing to the drive for better treatments for all NHS patients. One of these Trusts was Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust who increased their number of studies from 165 in 2012/13 to 198 in 2013/14.
The clinical research league table is available at: www.crn.nihr.ac.uk/annualstats
Patients and carers who want to find out more about clinical research can visit: www.nhsresearch.org
