Research at SASH

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust is involved in a range of research programmes that aim to improve treatments for our patients.

How research helps patients

• Research is essential to help us get a better understanding of what happens when someone falls ill. Research also helps us to learn how to prevent illnesses happening and improve quality of life
• All our research projects are essential to advancing medical knowledge and ultimately improving treatment for patients in the future
• If they want to take part, we offer our patients the chance to get involved in clinical trials, and to participate in research
• This means that some of our patients can often be the first to benefit from the very latest treatments

Initiating and delivering clinical research

We aim to become a centre of excellence for research by ensuring that:

• participation in research studies and clinical trials is offered to as many patients as possible
• our research is initiated as quickly as possible

The Trust aims are underpinned by the government’s initiatives to improve the performance of providers of NHS services in initiating and delivering clinical research, which has been driven by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) vision, mission and aims.

The Government’s Plan for Growth, published in March 2011, announced the transformation of incentives at local level for efficiency in initiation and delivery of clinical research.

The NIHR has therefore established two performance benchmarks that we and other NHS providers are measured against. The aim of these benchmarks is to increase the number of patients who have the opportunity to participate in research and to enhance the nation’s attractiveness as a host for research.

The two benchmarks are as follows:

Initiating clinical research

This data provides detail of trial set up and first participant recruitment times.

Information about our performance in initiating clinical trials is available below:

Delivering clinical research – time and target

Recruitment to time and target for all commercial clinical trials – measuring whether or not we have recruited the target number of patients in the agreed timeframe.

Information about our performance in delivering commercial trials is available below:

From April 2014 we are required to submit our quarterly performance data to the NIHR and to publish on our website.

Patient information and research

All NHS organisations are expected to participate and support health and care research. The Health Research Authority and government departments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales set standards for NHS organisations to make sure they protect your privacy and comply with the law when they are involved in research.

Find out more on the NHS Health Research Authority website.

RAPID CTCA study (IRAS. 164274)
Sponsor: University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian
If you have participated in the RAPID CTCA study and would like to read how the study complies with GDPR, please read the privacy notice available on the RAPID CTCA website.

NICE FIT study (IRAS. 218404)
Sponsor: Croydon Health Services NHS Trust
If you have participated in the NICE-FIT study and would like to read how the study complies with GDPR, please read the privacy notice below provided by the sponsor, or visit the NICE-FIT website for further information.

POETIC study (MREC Reference Number: 08/H1102/37  EudraCT Number: 2007-003877-21)
Sponsor(s): The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
If you have participated in the POETIC study and would like to read how the study complies with GDPR, please read the attached ‘transparency statement‘ provide by the sponsor.