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Greater Manchester hospitals leading the way on RECOVERY trial

Greater Manchester hospitals have been leading the way with recruitment of participants to an urgent research trial that’s looking to identify treatments for COVID-19 patients. 

The NIHR-supported RECOVERY trial is one of the Department of Health and Social Care’s highest priority studies for coronavirus. It is seeking to find out which treatments can help patients hospitalised with COVID-19 recover from the disease. 

The Chief Medical Officers of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have written to all NHS trusts in a UK-wide effort to recruit at least 10% of all patients admitted with COVID-19 on to the trial. 

For the two weeks between February 26 and 11 March, NHS trusts across Greater Manchester recruited 97 patients at a rate of 14% - taking the region’s total to 2,488 participants. 

For the same period, GM provided the top two trusts in the UK in terms of recruitment percentage per COVID hospital admissions. 

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust was first, with 37%, and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust was second, with 31.3%. Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust also ranked in the top 15, with 14.8%.

In addition, GM accounted for four of the top 15 recruiting trusts in the country. Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust was sixth with 17 participants (200 total); Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was 11th with 16 (673 total); Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust was 12th with 15 (422); and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust was 15th with 14 (584 total).  

Holly Monaghan, Assistant Research Delivery Manager NIHR Clinical Research Network Greater Manchester, said: “While it is never nice to see people hospitalised with any condition, it has been reassuring to see many patients across Greater Manchester being given the opportunity to be part of such an important trial, which has already helped find treatments that can help hospitalised people with COVID-19 get better. 

“We are really grateful to staff at our local hospitals who have been stepping up to the challenge of recruiting consenting patients on to RECOVERY. They have been leading the way and we would like to say thank you to everyone involved.”

Read more about RECOVERY