NHS: Association of Medical Research Charities Report

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Thursday 27th June 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, I am speaking today substantially in place of my noble friend Lord Willis, who, as noble Lords may know, had a heart attack two or three weeks ago. He is making very good progress and, in fact, is hoping to be back before we go into recess. However, he was anxious that somebody from our Benches should speak on this subject. My noble friend, as chair of the Association of Medical Research Charities, played a very substantial part in helping to develop this Vision document. Before that, as the noble Earl knows very well, he played a seminal role in ensuring that the Health and Social Care Act 2012 incorporated clauses that put on the Secretary of State and others in the NHS the duty to promote,

“research on matters relevant to the health service”,

and,

“the use in the health service of evidence obtained from research”.

All are agreed that the Act is a major milestone which has helped to embed research within the body of the NHS.

In many senses, I think that this vision is a natural sequel to that achievement. The AMRC, working with member charities, has attempted to put flesh on the bones of phrases that were bandied around at the time of the Bill being discussed in this House—phrases such as, “placing research at the heart of the NHS”.

As the noble Lord, Lord Turnberg, mentioned, Our vision for Research in the NHS was written after wide consultation among professionals on the one hand and patients on the other, and it is built on three key concepts that emerged from that consultation. The first is involving patients: telling them about research being undertaken, how they can find out more about that research and how they can participate if they wish and it is relevant to their care. Secondly, there is involving staff so that they understand the benefits of research, are motivated to engage with it and know how to take part in it and use its findings. Lastly, there is ensuring that the NHS is open to and about its research, and develops among its staff a group of leaders who will champion research and help embed good researchers and good research practice into the NHS.

I have just three questions for the Minister. First, there is the matter of clinical trials. As I said, one key issue is the NHS being open to research, but there is concern that it is losing its share of global clinical trials. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when I was doing more research on the pharmaceutical industry, the UK was a favoured location for clinical trials. Many multinational companies put their research laboratories here in the UK because of that. The Science and Technology Select Committee, of which I am a member, recently made a study of regenerative medicine. In the process of taking evidence for that, we learnt that despite the recognised quality of our research, it is no longer the case that we are among the leading countries doing clinical trials. One reason cited most frequently for this was the sheer complexity of procedures, especially the number of regulatory bodies involved. I noted in reading the report that this comes up yet again:

“40% of hospital doctors polled cited difficulties navigating regulatory processes as a barrier to them taking part in medical research in the last two years”.

I know that the UK Clinical Trials Gateway has been set up to simplify procedures, but can the Minister offer us any reassurance that the situation is likely to improve, and in particular that the Health Research Authority might in time become the one-stop shop that everybody is looking for?

My second question relates to co-operation between the NHS, universities and medical schools. Yesterday I attended the lecture given by my noble friend Lord Heseltine to the Industry and Parliament Trust, and I was amused when he talked about how, in the 1970s, the public sector—the Civil Service—and private sector industry were two separate worlds that worked in their own spaces and failed to recognise the benefits of working together in such areas as regeneration. In some senses, it seems that one hits the same problems between the NHS and the world of research, particularly university and medical school research:

“Our survey of almost 400 health professionals including 130 GPs found that around half knew something about the National Institute for Health Research and the NIHR Clinical Research Network … Awareness fell to around a quarter for Academic Health Science Centres, Biomedical Research Centres and Biomedical Research Units”.

Again, we know that a lot of effort is being made to bring together and develop these academic health science networks, linking up the local NHS organisations and universities. Nevertheless, that vision raises questions as to how these networks will share best practice. Can the Minister tell us a little more about how they will function?

Finally, I raise a question that was to a large extent raised by the noble Lord, Lord Turnberg. How can CCGs embed research throughout the NHS? There is considerable scepticism as to how far the CCGs will be able to do this. To help them, the report sets out on page 31 a research charter. How far does NHS England accept that charter and how much will it encourage CCGs to take note of and follow those procedures?

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, I apologise for intervening, but there are no spare minutes in this debate, so it would be helpful if Back-Benchers could keep their remarks to within the six minutes.