Dorset County recruits first Wessex patients to trial exploring COVID-19 treatments
Staff at Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have recruited the first two patients in Wessex to a trial exploring potential drug treatments for COVID-19.
The research trial, known as RECOVERY, aims to compare several different treatments that may be useful for patients with COVID-19. These treatments have been recommended for testing by the expert panel that advises Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer in England.
Although these treatments show promise, nobody knows if they will turn out to be more effective in helping patients recover than the usual standard of care, which all patients will receive.
The RECOVERY trial, which has received funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) via the Department of Health and Social Care, has been classed as an urgent public health research study, with all NHS trusts in England asked to support.
Sarah Williams, Lead Research Nurse at Dorset County Hospital, was part of the team that helped recruit the first two participants in Wessex to the trial. Sarah explains, “We have worked amazingly well as a team with our consultants and pharmacy colleagues to get the RECOVERY trial open to patients affected by COVID-19 at Dorset County Hospital. This shows what you can achieve when people are engaged and see the value of research.”
Professor Robert Peveler, CRN Wessex Clinical Director, and Rebecca McKay, CRN Wessex Chief Operating Officer, have expressed thanks to staff at the Trust on behalf of the Network and the NIHR: "Thank you to the research team at Dorset County who have recruited the first two patients in Wessex into a COVID-19 treatment study.
“This achievement is a testament to the research team’s ability to work at pace to achieve a great outcome for patients in Dorset. This was only possible because of their skill at engaging frontline clinical staff and their expertise in promoting the value of research.”
The chance to join the RECOVERY trial will be offered to adult inpatients in NHS hospitals who have tested positive for COVID-19 and who have not been excluded for medical reasons. Patients joining the trial will be allocated at random by computer to receive one of the two drugs being studied or no additional medication.
The RECOVERY trial is supported by a grant to the University of Oxford from UK Research and Innovation and the NIHR, and by core funding provided by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Wellcome, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Department for International Development, Health Data Research UK, the Medical Research Council Population Health Research Unit, and NIHR Clinical Trials Unit Support Funding.
Find out more about the RECOVERY trial by visiting www.recoverytrial.net
