Trust chosen to host pioneering regional Patient Recruitment Centre

BRADFORD has been chosen for a major new centre which will enable patients to take part in cutting edge treatment trials – including for coronavirus (COVID-19).

The new Patient Recruitment Centre (PRC) will be hosted by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and run by the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR), which is based at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI.)

It is one of five national PRCs announced by the Government, which are being set up across England and which have been made possible thanks to a £7 million Government investment.

The Bradford PRC – the only one to be set up in Yorkshire – will enable local patients to take part in late-phase commercial clinical research – studies funded by the life sciences industry – through which participants can access potentially cutting edge new drugs and treatments before they become widely available within the NHS.

During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the new research centres will also increase opportunities for patients across the region to access trials assessing the latest potential treatments for COVID-19.

However, the centres have not been set up solely in response to Covid-19; they have been in long term development and during the pandemic they are they still going to be recruiting patients into trials unrelated to coronavirus.

New opportunities

The five new centres are distributed across the country to ensure that as many patients as possible can benefit, and by working closely with local stakeholders, the centres will provide new opportunities for patients who may not previously have been able to take part in cutting-edge clinical studies.

Under the management of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and run locally by Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR), the Bradford centre will provide dedicated space, purpose-designed facilities and medical expertise to deliver clinical with the aim of increasing the number of studies being run across the region.

Dr Dinesh Saralya, Consultant Respiratory Physician and Assistant Director of the BIHR, will become director of the new PRC.

He said: “This is great news for our Trust and the city of Bradford, which we now know as the ‘City of Research.’ Being selected from a shortlist of over 35 trusts is simply a reflection of the hard work of all our research teams.

“This is also the net result of several years of excellent delivery into both early and late phase clinical trials at BTHFT and several Global first recruits. At Bradford we take pride in being the best. The new PRC will enable the wider community in Bradford and Yorkshire access cutting edge new therapies for various chronic medical conditions.

“In the current climate of finding a cure for COVID-19, the PRC will be set up as a priority centre to deliver on the various treatment trials for the virus. We will also be one of the centres of choice recruiting large numbers of patients into the forthcoming vaccine trails for COVID-19.”

For further details see https://www.bradfordhospitals.nhs.uk/2020/05/22/trust-chosen-to-host-pioneering-regional-patient-recruitment-centre/