On Monday I joined Rehman Chishti MP at Medway NHS Foundation Trust’s annual Clinical Research Day, which was open to patients and members of the public in Kent and Medway to showcase some of the incredible research being undertaken within our own NHS Trust and how patients can get involved in such ground-breaking work.
While 77% of people support the notion of clinical trials, only 40% of people feel they possess the knowledge of what this entails. Clinical Research Day aims to promote the wider knowledge around clinical trials; for instance, it is not about patients being guinea pigs, but rather them being fully monitored with more doctor care time to better enhance standards and chances of quicker recovery.
Amongst seeing for myself some of the excellent research and development undertaken in Medway, I was able to speak with some of our local celebrated pioneering research clinicians about the key work they are undertaking to improve patient care and quality of life. Medway, as I discovered, is actually at the forefront of some of the highest quality care research in the country.
This includes being one of a select few elite institutions nationwide, such as Kings College London and University College London, researching pre-eclampsia prevention, the early prediction of gestational diabetes, developing foetal medicine, pain-free genetic screening for Down’s Syndrome, as well as new studies around preventing adverse pregnancy and stillbirths.
The UK rate of the latter is staggeringly at 4.7% per 1000 births, the highest in the EU and parallel to many underdeveloped nations. While the Health Secretary aims to reduce this by 50% by 2030, Medway believes this is not enough and its work is aiming to push past this objective.
Our local NHS Trust is also leading an innovative trial to remotely diagnose chronic ear problems, aiming to significantly cut NHS costs. Given 90% of children will have some form of ear problem before the age of 6, this trial could lead to more effective healthcare which we all want for our children. It works via an iPhone app which takes a picture in the ear and sent to Cupris Health, the initiative’s partner, for suggested treatments.
That Medway was chosen, along with all of the above examples, shows the quality of the facilities we have. The Clinical Research Day is part of the wider National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) ‘Ok to Ask' campaign, which calls on patients, families and carers to ask their nurse or doctor about taking part in health research. The examples demonstrated by Medway show that clinical trialling works and yields great results for the patients who take part, and for those who benefit as a result.
I am very proud of all the excellent R&D projects that are taking place at Medway, and have enjoyed hearing first-hand these great examples. Patients taking part in research is vital to the success of local NHS Trust and the success that keeps enhancing patient care when we need it most. They have pave the way not only for themselves, but also for future generations.