Plymouth tops the table for the number of recruiting research studies

According to a national league table published last week, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust had the highest number of recruiting studies open in 2015/16 within the region.

A vital part of the work of the NHS, clinical research enables clinicians to gather 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.

The league table is published by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN), the research delivery arm of the NHS. It shows the number of studies undertaken by each NHS Trust from April 2015 to March 2016, and the number of patients who volunteered to take part in clinical research.

Here at Plymouth, we are increasing the number of studies carried out, year on year. In 2011/12 we undertook 144; 2012/13 there were 165, in 2013/14 there were 198; last year 203 were carried out and this year (2015/16) we had 214 recruiting studies.

Corinna Mossop, Research and Development Manager for Plymouth Hospitals, said: “We are incredibly proud of our research portfolio in Plymouth, for NIHR and all our other research studies, which we continue to build on and expand each year.

“We have studies open and are recruiting across a wide area of diagnostic services not least oncology, haematology, immunology, cardiology, gastroenterology and neurology. This offers more benefits to more patients, as they have access to the latest treatments in well-designed studies, while helping to make a difference to future care in the NHS.”

Clinical research can have a positive impact on people’s lives in many different ways. Many research participants have inspirational stories to tell about how clinical research can benefit patients, their families or carers.

Chief Executive Officer of the NIHR CRN, Dr Jonathan Sheffield said: “The NIHR League Table this year shows every NHS Trust in England is now research active.

“Evidence clearly shows research active trusts have better patient outcomes with 605,000 people across England participating in research in the NHS in the last year. The outlook is very encouraging. The league table results are a great achievement for all involved and highlight the growing commitment to research from the NHS and patients.” 

Chris Whitty, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health, said: “The support and infrastructure provided by the National Institute for Health Research has helped increase year on year the number of research opportunities offered within the NHS.

“Commercial partnerships supported by the Clinical Research Network continue to play a key role in bringing world-class research studies to the UK, benefiting our health service and ensuring new treatments are available to patients as quickly as possible.”

The NIHR League Table can be accessed from the NIHR website: www.nihr.ac.uk/nihrleaguetable

If you are interested in taking part in a clinical trial at Plymouth Hospitals, please e-mail plh-tr.researchppiaccount@nhs.net. More information on the department can be found: http://www.medicalresearchplymouth.org.uk/