NIHR Patient Recruitment Centre achieves 100% satisfaction from commercial partners in recent feedback
Commercial companies undertaking research at the NIHR’s five Patient Recruitment Centres (PRCs) have unanimously reported that they would recommend the PRCs to other organisations planning to deliver commercial studies.
The national PRCs are the first family of NIHR-funded research facilities that are 100% dedicated to delivering commercial research. They are purpose-designed to increase the UK’s capacity to deliver large scale, late-phase commercial clinical trials and to make it easier and quicker to deliver commercial research in our NHS.
In line with its continuous improvement ethos, the Patient Recruitment Centres have requested feedback from companies undertaking research at the sites in Blackpool, Bradford, Exeter, Leicester and Newcastle. Specifically this survey seeks to garner opinions on data quality, study set-up, study delivery and value for money, as well as giving companies an opportunity to comment on their overall experience of working with the new centres. The feedback revealed high satisfaction rates across all areas surveyed.
All respondents said they would consider using the PRCs for commercial research again, and 100% of respondents whose studies have closed, reported that they were satisfied with study delivery. Comments included;
“the running of the study at the PRC was professional, smooth and accurate by all staff which made monitoring straightforward”
and,
“the staff were easily approachable by email and worked hard to make monitoring remotely as easy as possible.”
The ability of the PRCs to deliver studies to time and target also received positive comments:
“Recruitment was faster than expected and staff worked tirelessly to support the study and the participants throughout the study period.”
One sponsor company said they would have no hesitation recommending the PRCs: “I am confident that the PRC would provide a safe and efficient site for any clinical study. They would also help in the design process and collaborate well with the organisation to get the best outcome for the patients and the study.”
Individual sites also received positive feedback regarding studies they are running through the PRCs. “PRC: Leicester was an excellent site with good communication and efficiency. I would definitely recommend the PRC to other companies.”
A study, which is being delivered at PRC: Blackpool reported: “General set-up was excellent; we had no issues. The site continues to communicate clearly and transparently now the study has entered the maintenance phase.”
The PRCs were established as one of the Sector Deal 2 commitments contributing to the Government’s Life Sciences Industrial Strategy to strengthen the UK environment for clinical research and enable growth within the sector, while ensuring the country is at the forefront of medical science and the future development of innovative new treatments.
Sine Littlewood, Director of Business Development & Marketing at the NIHR Clinical Research Network said:
“The NIHR PRCS were established to increase our capacity and capability to support the delivery of late-phase commercial research through the NHS. This feedback is testament to the fact that they are achieving this aim and are providing a streamlined, consistent and collaborative approach to study set-up and delivery, and making it quicker and easier for the life science industry to bring late phase studies to the UK and run these at pace and scale across our NHS.”
Find out more about our Patient Recruitment Centres and how they can support the delivery of commercial research studies or contact the Programme Office.
NB the results from this survey were collected between January and June 2022.
