Research

Our Policy

Our Trust is research-focused. We look for opportunities to promote research and development and are willing to provide the necessary training for our staff to be involved in research.

Whilst we have our dedicated research team, we require all of our staff to be proactive in promoting research so that the maximum number of our patients have the opportunity to take part in research studies.

All research carried out by the research team is only undertaken once a study is approved by the IRAS (Integrated Research Application System) and the HRA (Health Research Authority).

Patient safety is at the forefront of our choices when deciding if we will undertake a research study, and therefore we have strict standard operating procedures (SOP), to ensure that our patients are adequately cared for. All research staff including non-clinical have undergone medical emergency response training.

We will endeavour to undertake studies that include not just our patients, but also their families and carers, to better understand the needs of families, as well as the patients.

Count Me In

Part of the NHS Constitution is to offer research to every NHS patient. To help us ensure that we can meet this aim, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust has set up the ‘Count Me In’ initiative.

Count Me In enables us to use patients’ information to contact them about research projects, and to offer them the opportunity to get involved. Under previous policies, participation in research was based on clinicians offering opportunities to our patients. Due to circumstances, time constraints and other factors, not all patients were offered the opportunity to be involved. This will no longer be the case.

Count Me In will enable the Research Team to access clinical records to establish a patient’s potential eligibility to a study. The Research Team will then supply details of the study to eligible patients so that they may consider participation.

No one has to take part in any study and we understand that not all our patients will want to be contacted in this way. Therefore, the Count Me In initiative allows a patient to opt out of research

When a patient is referred to the Trust, initial appointment letters will make patients aware of the ‘Count Me In’ initiative and refer them to this page of the Internet. If patients do not wish to take part in research they can inform us by emailing countmein@ghc.nhs.uk,  or by calling 01242 634490 with their name, date of birth and home postcode or first line of the address, and this preference will be recorded in the patient’s medical records held by the Trust.

Should you have any queries with regards to the Count Me In Policy, please contact the Research Team on 01242 634490, or email countmein@ghc.nhs.uk

Performance in Initiating and Delivering Clinical Research

The Government wishes to see a dramatic and sustained improvement in the performance of providers of NHS services in initiating and delivering clinical research. The aim is to increase the number of patients who have the opportunity to participate in research and to enhance the nation’s attractiveness as a host for research.

As part of the oversight of this aim, providers of NHS Services are required to publish information on recruitment to clinical trials and delivery to time and to target for commercial clinical trials. These reports can be found at the following link:

https://ccfctp.nihr.ac.uk/public-trustsubmissions/gloucestershire-health-and-care-nhs-foundation-trust-1104

The reports include two tables for each quarter:

Performance in Initiating Clinical Research This report provides information about studies with a date site selected that falls within the last 12 months. This applies to only Clinical Trials approved through the HRA systems. Clinical Trials approved under the old systems are now excluded. The table identifies where delays in set-up and recruitment of first patients have occurred, providing transparency of process. Where Sponsor expectations have not been met by the Trust, this information is recorded. In the table

Performance in Delivering Clinical Research This report provides information about Commercially Sponsored research hosted by Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust in relation to meeting the Time and Target metric (HLO#2) and includes those studies that have closed in the last 12 months.

Where tables are empty, the Trust as reported a “NIL RETURN” for that quarter, meaning that no new Clinical Trials were opened or no Commercially-Sponsored Clinical Trials closed during that period.

If there are any questions about these reports or the benchmarks themselves, please contact Mark Walker, Head of Research and Development on 01242 634491 or mark.walker@ghc.nhs.uk

Our partners

National Institute of Health Research (NIHR)

NIHR is funded by the Department of Health to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. They ensure that the NHS is able to support the research of other funders to encourage broader investment in, and economic growth from, health research.

They work with charities and the life sciences industry to help patients gain earlier access to breakthrough treatments. They also train and develop researchers to keep the nation at the forefront of international research.

Cobalt Health

Cobalt is a medical imaging charity.

Research4Gloucestershire (R4G)

Research4Gloucestershire is a collaboration between

• Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
• Gloucestershire CCG, Gloucestershire County Council
• Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• University of Gloucestershire
• Cobalt Health.