Research and Development

COVID-19 is one the biggest ever public health challenges, and research has a key role to play in the fight against it. We have taken part in some of the urgent public health (UPH) research studies to help with the national agenda to understand more about how the virus presents in symptoms, appropriate forms of testing and what the most effective types of treatment are.

COVID-19 studies we are or have contributed to are:

• RECOVERY: This international clinical trial aims to identify treatments that may be beneficial for people hospitalised with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.
• GenOMICCS: Study investigating if there is a genetic link to why some people are more susceptible to suffering from severe symptoms, when infected with the COVID-19 virus.
• ISARIC: Data collection study looking at how COVID-19 presents in hospitalised patients and the effectiveness of the patient pathways used.
• FALCON (CLOSED): For patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection to participate in a study to improve the diagnosis of the disease.

Research and development team

The R&D Department is dedicated to supporting research and is responsible for ensuring that all research conducted in the Trust conforms to all necessary legal, regulatory and ethical requirements. The Trust is committed to delivering a research agenda which is responsive to national guidance for clinical and cost-effectiveness and for systematic measures to monitor and improve quality. 

R&D has an approval process in place in line with the UK policy framework for health and social care research. All research conducted within T&GICFT must be registered with, and receive confirmation of capacity and capability by the Trust's R&D Department prior to any research activity commencing. Investigators are encouraged to contact the R&D Department ASAP to register projects and obtain a unique study reference number. Staff are asked to submit their IRAS applications and protocol to start the approval process. The Department also facilitates the R&D process by issuing Letters of Access, contract negotiation and ensuring staff have attended a Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training session.

Researchers can apply for support and funding from the NIHR. You can find more information here.

Contacts:

Mr Brendan Ryan - Medical Director / Director of Research and Development

Mrs Margaret Cooper - Associate Director of Research and Innovation

Mrs Rebecca Roberts - Research and Governance Manager

Address:

Research Office

2nd Floor Charlesworth Building

Tameside & Glossop IC NHS FT Foundation Trust

Fountain Street

Ashton-Under-Lyne

OL6 9RW

Tel: 0161 922 4451

Email: rd@tgh.nhs.uk

Research management - clinical team

Our Research Management Team consists of both nurses and support staff who work alongside Principal Investigators for research studies being delivered at T&GICFT. We co-ordinate and support the effective implementation and conduct of the research studies which involves the promotion of research availability, staff training, recruitment of patients and the ongoing care and support of our research participants.

Practitioners and professionals can learn more about research and undertake training in the essential ‘Good Clinical Practice’ online course and a variety of topics associated with research delivery such as ‘Informed Consent’ and ‘Vaccine Training’.

Learning and support on the NIHR website.

Contacts:

Susan Kilroy - Senior Clinical Research Nurse / Team Lead

Joanne Vere - Clinical Research Nurse

Jacqueline McCormick - Clinical Research Nurse

Heather Savill - Clinical Research Nurse

Victoria Turner - Clinical Research Nurse

Martina Coulding - Clinical Trials Administrator

Martyn Clark - Research Admin Assistant

Heather Jones - Research Admin Assistant

Attiya Nisar - Research Admin Assistant

Address:    

Research Management Team

Macmillan Unit

Tameside & Glossop IC NHS FT

Fountain Street

Ashton-under-Lyne

OL6 9RW

Tel: 0161 922 4011

Email: researchoffice@tgh.nhs.uk

The NHS Health Research Authority states that high quality health and social care research must involve patients and the public. We need this to make sure that all research is important, relevant and acceptable to those it should benefit.

At T&GICFT we encourage patient research participants to feedback on their experience through the PRES study run by the NIHR. If you would like to offer any feedback on any research study you have taken part in, please follow this link and ensure to state which study you were recruited to and the organisation you were recruited by.

Participant Research Experience Survey

We are developing the role of ‘Patient Research Champion’. Champions are volunteers who have taken part in research at the Trust and agree to work alongside the research team to promote research awareness across the organisation and in the local community. Their story and experiences can highlight the real benefits of taking part in research and encourage more people to become involved. Read more about the benefits of being a Research Champion here. 

Research for the Future is an NHS supported campaign in greater Manchester that helps people find out about and take part in health and care research. Getting involved in research means you are helping to discover new ways to prevent, diagnose and manage illnesses. 

Everyone is welcome to register with Research for the Future, whether you have a health condition or not.

NIHR Clinical Trial 70-day Benchmark and Clinical Trial Recruitment Transparency

The Government wants to see a dramatic and sustained improvement in the performance of providers of NHS services in initiating and delivering clinical research.

The Department of Health requires the publication on a quarterly basis of information regarding: the 70-day benchmark for clinical trial initiation; and the recruitment to time and target for commercial contract clinical trials.

Providers of NHS services are required to publish the following information for Initiating Clinical Research (i.e. the 70-day benchmark) on a publicly available part of their website:

• The name of the trial
• The Research Ethics Committee reference number
• The date of receipt of a Valid Research Application
• The date of the recruitment of first patient
• Where the benchmark has not been achieved for a particular clinical trial, the reason for not doing so

Providers of NHS services are also required to publish the following information regarding commercial contract clinical trials, to meet the transparency commitment for delivering clinical research to time and target on a publicly available part of their website:

• The name of the trial
• The Research Ethics Committee reference number
• The target number of patients it has agreed to recruit to that trial
• The date by which it has agreed to recruit the target number of patients;
• The trial status: e.g. ongoing or finished

If trial recruitment has finished, whether or not the agreed target number of patients was recruited within the agreed time.

To see latest reports for TGICFT, visit the National Institute for Health Research website.

Tameside Hospital leads the way for national COVID study

As an NHS organisation we use personally-identifiable information to conduct research to improve health, care and services. As a publicly-funded organisation, we have to ensure that it is in the public interest when we use personally-identifiable information from people who have agreed to take part in research. This means that when you agree to take part in a research study, we will use your data in the ways needed to conduct and analyse the research study. Your rights to access, change or move your information are limited, as we need to manage your information in specific ways in order for the research to be reliable and accurate. If you withdraw from the study, we will keep the information about you that we have already obtained. To safeguard your rights, we will use the minimum personally-identifiable information possible.

Health and care research should serve the public interest, which means that we have to demonstrate that our research serves the interests of society as a whole. We do this by following the UK Policy framework for health and social care research.

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact our Patient Advice and Liaison service who will investigate the matter. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data in a way that is not lawful you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Our Patient Advice and Liaison Service can be contacted on 0161 922 4466 or email palsandcomplaints@tgh.nhs.uk.

For more information on the use of patient information in research, please visit the Health Research Authority's website.