East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust top of the league for research (From Lancashire Telegraph)

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust top of the league for research

4:30pm Saturday 7th January 2012 in Health By Neil Docking, Reporter

RESEARCH Anton Krige

EAST Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has been ranked at the top of a new league table of clinical research.

The trust, which runs Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital, was named the best in the North West region for the number of patients involved in important studies.

The National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network published the league table of research activity in England for the first time.

In 2010/11 East Lancashire Hospitals recruited almost 3,000 patients into 70 research studies.

And it is already well on the way to surpassing this achievement in 20011/12.

Research takes place across most specialities within the trust – but the vast majority takes place in critical or intensive care and in obstetrics, which is the care of pregnant mothers and their babies up to and after birth.

Anton Krige, the trust’s associate medical director for research and development, said that more and more patients were being asked to take part in studies.

The consultant in critical care and anaesthesia said: “The trust is going from strength to strength supporting high quality healthcare research that is of benefit to the local population of East Lancashire.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the patients involved in research studies.

"We have moved from doing very little research in East Lancashire to thousands of people taking part in just a few years thanks to the trust’s research and development team.”