More about our region and facilities

PRC: Leicester is hosted by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust which is both nationally and internationally-renowned for providing specialist services to as many as three million patients. It is one of the biggest and busiest NHS Trusts in the country, serving the one million residents of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

Our region

The city of Leicester is the first non-white majority population in the UK. We work closely with the Centre for Ethnic Health Research to ensure all voices are heard. The wider county, in contrast, consists of a majority white, affluent and rural population. This blend offers unique opportunities for clinical research.

  • 55% of Leicester City residents are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
  • 61% of the city’s population is under 40 years.
  • Children and young people make up a quarter of the population.
  • 80% of the wider Leicestershire county is classed as rural.

Regional partnerships

We have agreements in place to work closely with a number of organisations to support rapid, high volume patient recruitment across our region. Firstly we are part of Leicestershire Integrated Healthcare System which links primary, secondary and tertiary care services. This collaboration enables us to access the patient populations served by:

  • Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust which provides community and mental health services to a population of 1 million;
  • Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (ICB) responsible for planning, arranging and ensuring the availability and quality of health services to over 1 million local people.

We also have excellent direct engagement with many primary care services and general practices (GPs) and we work closely with the University of Leicester as our main academic partner.

Integrated data systems

We have developed a contact management database in REDCap that combines primary care network and GP contact data, and other business intelligence relating to GP research interest and engagement. This supports a managed and targeted engagement strategy, with the potential for it to be used as a collaborative tool across the research community. This tried and tested method, used in other major studies like GENVASC and CODEC, demonstrates its effectiveness as an engagement and management tool across a wide geographical area and multiple GP practices.

State-of-the-art facilities

Our host trust has received a £450 million reconfiguration package from the UK government to invest in state-of-the-art facilities for the benefit of patients.

As well as our PRC, the trust hosts and manages a wealth of NIHR research delivery infrastructure, including a Biomedical Research Centre, Clinical Research Facility, Clinical Research Network East Midlands and an Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (jointly funded by CRUK). It has also set up the National Centre for Drug Adherence Testing. This means that our PRC shares its site with, and has access to:

  • A clinical trials pharmacy
  • Full pathology services
  • Sample preparation laboratories
  • Imaging (CT/MRI/interventional radiology)
  • A DEXA scanner
  • Fully equipped gym for exercise interventions, cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic assessments

The PRC team works very closely with these support services to ensure feasibility assessments are conducted in a robust and timely manner, assisted by an electronic sign-off system to support high-speed capacity and capability assessments. We also have access to two other acute hospital sites run by our host trust, with specialist equipment for, but not limited to, Cardiology, Respiratory, Paediatric and Emergency Medicine.

Get in touch

Get in touch to discuss your upcoming research projects and find out how we can help you.

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