Patient Recruitment Centres

(asked on 1st March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria the National Institute for Health Research used to select the sites for the National Patient Recruitment Centres; and what steps his Department plans to take to (a) evaluate the effectiveness of those centres and (b) publish that information.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 4th March 2021

The designation of individual Patient Recruitment Centres (PRC) was undertaken following an open competition in which applications were assessed by an independent panel against the following criteria:

- A proven track record in the delivery of late-phase commercial research;

- Demonstration of excellence in corporate governance and financial control;

- A proven culture of patient-focused research;

- Demonstration of a strategic commitment to the delivery of late-phase commercial research;

- The development of commercial sustainability and a proven track record of effective cross-sector partnership working;

- An understanding of the importance to United Kingdom Plc competitiveness of fair, consistent and timely contracting and costing;

- Systems and processes to support excellence in information governance and data management; and

- Systems and processes to support excellence in contract management.

Each PRC has a contract with defined contractual management arrangements in place through the National Institute of Health Research. This includes a post-contract review on progress against objectives and to evaluate benefits achieved and identify any lessons learned.

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