NIHR Leicester CRF

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) provides care for a large and diverse population from three hospitals in Leicester that are very active in research. At any one time up to 1000 clinical trials of treatments for illnesses may be in progress in Leicester's hospitals.

UHL works in partnership with the University of Leicester to deliver its research and has been successful in attracting funding for research programmes, particularly from NIHR, and has built world class research areas at each of Leicester's Hospitals. Consequently all hospitals in Leicester have excellent facilities for research.

Possible new medical treatments have to be tested in clinical trials.

The current Leicester CRF provides opportunities for patients to take part in early clinical trials that represent the first stages in the testing of novel medicines or other treatments that have been newly developed.

Sometimes these Leicester patients may be the first to be given these treatments and so very close supervision by highly trained staff is required. These types of trials often lead to transformations in patient care, providing cures and extending life.

The future Leicester CRF aims to expand to run more such trials in diseases that are of direct relevance to the local population, including cancer, diabetes, heart, kidney and lung diseases, including diseases affecting children.

In addition, the Leicester CRF will enlarge its specialised team that runs trials for patients who have been admitted as an emergency to very busy areas in the hospitals such as A&E, acute admissions units or intensive care, where new treatments are urgently needed but accessing patients to take part in such trials can be difficult.

Leicester CRF will also increase its capacity to provide very advanced and specialised facilities for scanning patients and for measuring complex body responses to the treatments tested in clinical trials.

Because the Leicester CRF already has great facilities, the best way to achieve these aims is to provide more appropriately trained staff who will provide specialist skills and work flexibly across the hospitals in Leicester to go where the patients are located.

The Leicester CRF wants to ensure that as many patients as possible, from all backgrounds and ethnicities, have the opportunity to take part in these clinical trials and therefore the work of the Leicester CRF will be closely guided by input from members of the public to ensure this.

To further increase patient access to trials, the Leicester CRF will partner with University Hospitals of Northamptonshire.

The Leicester CRF team will support and train colleagues at Northampton General Hospital to recruit their patients into early clinical trials for the first time.

The Leicester CRF will be managed by a senior an experienced team, including individuals from all relevant clinical specialities and from other research areas to ensure efficient working and joint learning. Progress will be supervised at a very senior level by the UHL Trust Board.

In this way Leicester CRF's research will be well positioned to make an impact with new treatments for patients locally and beyond.