West Street Surgery is a Research Active Practice. This means that we carry out medical research at the practice. This research can take many different forms such as asking patients and staff to fill in questionnaires, patients being sent invitations to join a research study, to patients being recruited during appointments with clinicians.

What is the Primary Care Research Network East of England

The mission of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is to maintain a health research system in which the NHS supports outstanding individuals, working in world class facilities, conducting leading edge research focused on the needs of patients and the public. The NIHR is funded by the Department of Health.

The Primary Care Research Network East of England (PCRN EofE) is one of a family of NIHR national research networks working together with the Comprehensive Local Research Networks (CLRN) to provide a wide range of support to the local research community.

Our practice participates in research activity and works closely with the Primary Care Research Network East of England, creating more opportunities for more patients to be involved in research should they wish. By building on and extending partnerships, with university academics and the NHS, research collaboration across the East of England is further strengthened.

The PCRN E of E also helps our practice by supporting us to recruit and take part in clinical studies through their locally based research nurses and network coordinators.

What is Primary Care research?

People use research to try and find the causes of diseases and to find better treatments and services for those diseases and improve patient care.

Different types of research

Research is presented in different formats:

• Completing a questionnaire
• Requesting the use of your anonymised data
• Taking part in an interview
• Testing new treatments, therapies or devices
• Experiencing new combinations of treatments

Practice set up

We have been accredited by RCGP as ‘research ready’ so we are able to participate in research studies that PCRN EoE offers.
To become research ready the practice has completed an online self-accreditation questionnaire which covers the minimum requirements of The Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care, Department of Health (2005). The accreditation has been developed by the Royal College of General Practitioners in conjunction with the NIHR and the PCRN. (research ready self-accreditation).

Benefits of being ‘research ready’

• Enables our practice to reflect on our ability and capacity to conduct high quality research.
• Provides assurance for study sponsors, governance staff and patients that our practice is up to date and compliant with national standards for NHS research.
• Provides the practice with awareness of how it can minimise any potential risks for our practice, practice staff and study participants.
• Access to a research ready file which provides a useful reference for the research team and also for the induction and training of new staff in our practice who will be participating in its research activities.
• Opportunities to be involved in a wider range of research studies.

Research Training – Good Clinical Practice for research in Primary Care

A key requirement for anyone involved in the conduct of clinical research is Good Clinical Practice for research (GCP) training. GCP is the guideline and standard to which all NHS research is conducted.

Why GCP training is essential

Everyone involved in the conduct of clinical research must have training to ensure they are best prepared to carry out their duties and responsibilities.

This is laid down in the Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care Department of Health (2005), covering all research in the NHS in England, and in law for those people working on clinical trials.

The principles of GCP state that: Each individual involved in conducting a trial should be qualified by education, training and experience to perform his or her respective task(s). 2.8, E6 Guideline for Good Clinical Practice.

Practice involvement in research

Why support research

Research studies help to answer specific questions about health and health care. For example:

• Whether new treatments or ways of organising services are effective (do they work?).
• Whether those treatments or services are cost-effective (do they give value for money?).
• How different health problems develop and progress over time – to help gain a better understanding of that health problem.
• The views of patients and health professionals about a particular treatment, intervention or service and how they might be improved.

The results of research studies can be of interest to patients and useful to health professionals and managers in the NHS, in helping to decide what treatments and services to provide in future.

Our current Research Projects

For information about our current research projects, please see below:

• Research Active Projects