NHS LONG TERM PLAN
recruiting participants and gaining consent, expert support and advice on how to get studies off the ground, and advice on how to run a trial at an individual practice. It can also potentially include clinical
support for studies, where in some instances funded clinical research nurses can be provided to help deliver trials within the practice.
Meanwhile, the NIHR Academy is also seeking to increase academic research capacity in primary care through its primary care incubator,9
with the aim of further
developing and supporting academic researchers in the UK. If you are interested in finding out more about the incubators currently in development, contact
academy@nihr.ac.uk
The local CRN networks will also encourage GP practices to undertake the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Research Ready10
scheme which is the
entry-level accreditation scheme for practices wishing to undertake research. It is currently being revised in the light of the changing structures in primary care and is explicitly referred to in the contract documentation as being supported by NHS England.
The range of opportunities available to practices to participate in primary care research also includes providing data to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) - a UK Government research service, jointly supported by the NIHR. The CPRD provides access to anonymised NHS data for observational and interventional public health research. CPRD services are based on data from a pool of 11 million registered patients across a network of GP practices in the UK - with data used to support aspects of study planning, and patient recruitment - for example, using primary care electronic health record data to locate eligible patients.
Research for everyone’s benefit
Over recent years, NIHR has seen a decline in the number of GP practices involved in research. This trend is ultimately not good news for patients, who as a result may not be offered the chance to access innovative new treatments - or the opportunity to
contribute to the advancing of medical science.
Despite this, NIHR’s Clinical Research Network (CRN) has continued to recruit more patients into primary care studies year-on- year - for example an additional 6000 patients were recruited during the last financial year than were recruited in 2017/18.
The CRN has also continued to perform
very well in terms of delivering studies to time and target - ensuring that study sample sizes are achieved, and studies are delivered within the specified time as effectively and efficiently as possible.
By ensuring that as many practices are involved in research as possible, patients and participants ultimately receive better care - while medical science benefits from a more diverse and representative population set taking part in studies. Working alongside NHS England, the
Royal College of General Practitioners and the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) - collectively, that is clearly the ambition and one that we hope the new GP contract framework will help to achieve. CSJ
References
1
https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/01/five-year- deal-to-expand-gp-services-and-kick-start-nhs- long-term-plan-implementation/
2
https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/01/five-year- deal-to-expand-gp-services-and-kick-start-nhs- long-term-plan-implementation/
3
https://www.annualrdforum.org.uk/wp- content/uploads/formidable/13/52-Working-at- scale-in-Primary-Care-Results-from-a-North-West- London-pilot-scheme.pdf
4
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/about-us/news/2018/ november/building-and-retaining-gp-workforce- must-be-key-in-nhs-long-term-plan-says-
rcgp.aspx
5
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/ 2019/01/gp-contract-2019.pdf
6
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC4342017/
7
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/showcase/services/ clinical-research-network.htm
8
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/study-support-service 9
http://www.nihr.ac.uk/showcase/academy- programmes/
10
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/researchready 32 I
WWW.CLINICALSERVICESJOURNAL.COM AUGUST 2019
About the author
Associate Professor Philip Evans MPhil FRCGP is the NIHR Clinical Research Network National specialty lead for primary care. Associate Professor Evans is a GP at St Leonard’s Practice in Exeter, Devon. He is the NIHR clinical research network specialty cluster lead for dermatology, mental health, primary care and public health based at King’s College in London and the national specialty lead for primary care both inside and outside of general practice.
He trained in Guy’s Hospital and then did GP training in Plymouth before moving to Exeter as a GP in 1987 and he has been in the same practice ever since. Professor Evans was an RCGP research training fellow from 1988-1990 and then lecturer in the University of Exeter. He is now an Associate Professor in the University of Exeter Medical School. He has a research interest in the management of pre-diabetes and also the prevention and diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in primary care. He has been director of three Primary
Care Research Networks, most recently the Primary Care Research Network South West.
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