The West Midlands Primary Care Team – Supporting the delivery of research in the Primary Care Setting

by Pauline Boyle, Chief Operating Officer, Clinical Research Network West Midlands

Over one million people have taken part in Primary Care research nationally in the past 10 years, and 175,000 of these were recruited in GP practices in the West Midlands. The contribution of these practices is significantly helping the NHS to gather evidence about new treatments and services in order to improve patient care.

What did we do well as a Clinical Research Network and as a Primary Care Speciality last year?

As one of 15 Local Clinical Research Networks (CRNs) in England, the CRN West Midlands has been recognised for innovation and improvements in a number of key areas. For example, our leadership and support of the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement induction programme, our continuous improvement initiatives and success in exceeding our participant recruitment target. Primary Care is one of our 30 specialities and the primary care delivery support team contributes significantly to these areas of success. Their engagement with the GP practices and community pharmacies, and their support for the delivery of National Institute for health Research (NIHR) Portfolio studies in both the Primary and Secondary Care settings is pivotal to the increasing the opportunities for patients to take part in research across all of our specialties. Primary Care in the West Midlands recruited just short of 10,000 patients into NIHR portfolio studies last year, which was a significant contribution to both our recruitment target and future funding. Interestingly, an increasing amount of the work that they undertake supports the wider Network endeavour rather than just Primary Care and can often go unrecognised. For example, their support of practices to act as Patient Identification Centres (PICs) and their support to study delivery in hospices and care homes. It is a misconception that research in the Primary Care setting is easy to do, but Primary Care studies can often be complex, sensitive and very difficult to recruit to, leaving the GP practice requiring a lot of support to deliver them. Without the support and dedication of our Primary Care delivery support team, many GP practices simply would not take part in research and the Network would not achieve the high levels of recruitment that we currently enjoy. It is for these and many more reasons that the CRN recognises the significant contribution that our Primary Care team provide.

What does your vision for the future of the Network look like and how do you see Primary Care contributing to the continued success?

I am excited about the many opportunities for research. The development of digital technology to support clinical trials will transform the way we deliver trials, making us more efficient and meeting the needs of our population.

As you know, the way we deliver health and social care is changing. More services will be delivered in Primary Care as well as non-NHS organisations. We need to be flexible and adaptable in order to take advantage of the new opportunities for patients to have the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial.

If we get this right, clinical trials will be part of everyone’s business, no matter where health and social care is delivered.

Patients will actively seek out opportunities to participate and we will continue to develop our workforce to meet these new demands. The expansion of the delivery of studies within Primary Care is an exciting opportunity and I am confident that we can work together to continue to provide a first class service for our population.

We also need to recognise the contribution Primary Care makes in all aspects of clinical research in their contribution to PIC activity and recruitment in community pharmacies and hospices.

How do you see the Primary Care role contributing to the future success of the network?

The future success of the Network is largely dependent on the dedication and commitment of our staff to support the timely and effective delivery of studies brought to us by our research community. I am well aware of the co-operation and collaboration that our Primary Care team have demonstrated. This has resulted in huge progress in streamlining and standardising their structure and many of their processes to improve the researcher experience, and has encouraged researchers to bring their repeated business to the West Midlands because of our excellent reputation. I am keen to support the team to build on this progress and really get them working as one team across the whole of the West Midlands, operating seamlessly together across the three localities. A Primary Care delivery support team which is dedicated, resilient, and which can quickly and positively respond to support the delivery of research in a changing Primary Care landscape, will enable them to quickly engage and support the new GP configurations and new models of healthcare providers. This will certainly add value and contribute to the wider CRN WM success.

Finally I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Primary Care team for their continued dedication and professionalism which has undoubtedly resulted in better outcomes for our population. I am looking forward to exciting opportunities ahead of us in which Primary Care will take the lead.