A CARE trust has topped a national NHS league table on research, beating off competition from trusts in London, Birmingham and Leeds.

Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust has beaten trusts from across England to top the ‘volume of research’ category of the Research Activity League Table for 2016/17.

The table provides a picture of how much clinical research is happening and involving how many participants across all NHS care trusts in England.

Over 10,000 participants have benefitted from taking part in research conducted through Lancashire Care over the past six years, according to figures published by the NHS National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).

Lancashire Care said it is involved in some "cutting edge trials", including several Alzheimer’s commercial trials, with its patients having the opportunity to receive treatments that are not routinely available within the NHS.

While following the results of a recent study, changes in practice to support people with learning disabilities who have experienced severe depression, are also underway at the care trust.

Clinical research is the study of health and illness in people and it is the way society learns how to prevent, diagnose and treat illness.

Andrew Pennington, Associate Director of Lancashire Care’s Research & Development Department, said: “In order to achieve such an outstanding level of work, the team is involved with a broad spectrum of studies.

"Research isn’t always a science fiction type scenario – recruits may simply need to fill in a questionnaire online.

"They don’t even need to be unwell. Some studies, for example, are for healthy volunteers who are willing to give a small amount of blood.

It also jointly operate the Clinical Research Facility, which opened in April last year.

Situated at the Royal Preston Hospital site, the research facility is a joint venture between Lancashire Care, Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Lancaster University to provide more opportunities or people in Lancashire and Cumbria to participate high quality clinical research.

The NIHR figures also show that more patients in East Lancashire are accessing new and better treatments for diseases and conditions in the past year.

New data shows a 10 per cent increase in clinical research participants to 1,642 at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT).

In addition, the number of research studies in East Lancashire rose by 16 per cent during the last 12 months, to a record high of 92 active studies in the year ending March 2017.

Research studies have featured women's health, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.

Dr Anton Krige, ELHT's Clinical Director for Research and Development, said: “To have 92 research studies in the last year, including women’s health, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, and so many health professionals making research part of their day-to-day activities can only be good news for the health of the country.”