Dear Member of Parliament,

This afternoon the Health and Social Care Bill will recieve its Second Reading in the House of Commons.  The legislation sets out a far-reaching programme for reforming the NHS and the provision of patient care. 

The Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and its 127 member charities believe that high quality research is one of the markers of a modern health service and crucial to improving outcomes for patients.  Last year medical research charities, working collaboratively with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), other funders, academics and patients, funded 37% of all clinical trials and other studies on the NIHR portfolio.  The NHS is crucial to the delivery of this research and is one of the reasons why the UK is an international leader in science.

At AMRC’s AGM in November 2010 the Parliamentary Under Secretary-of-State for Quality, Earl Howe, said:

‘We are committed to a future in which research continues as a core function of the NHS. This commitment is written down in the White Paper, where everyone can see it.’

We welcome the fact that the Health and Social Care Bill places a duty on the new NHS Commissioning Board to promote research and innovation and its focus on quality outcomes for patients.  But as the legislation begins its passage through parliament further clarity is needed on how research and innovation will be supported and incentivised in a radically changed NHS.

We ask that you support AMRC and its members in raising the following issues (see also our response to the NHS White Paper) with Ministers as the debate on the Bill opens:

The legislation and the changes it presages are an excellent opportunity to engender a research active culture within the NHS.  We call on the Government to implement the recommendations of the Academy of Medical Sciences’ report ‘A new pathway for the regulation and governance of health research’ aimed at embedding research as a core function of the NHS.  These include developing research activity metrics for research as part of the NHS Operating Framework, and ensuring every Trust Board has an executive director as a member who is responsible for promoting research within the organisation.

AMRC believes there are inherent risks to future research activity such as clinical trials with the advent of GP Commissioning Consortia.  Currently, many patients who wish to find out about those clinical trials in which they can participate and whose GP practice is not research active, have to rely on charities and other sources of help.  Unless GPs are supported appropriately, and incentivised through the new tarriff system, time and cost pressures will act as a further disincentive to their involvement; this despite the evidence that trial participation can lead to better outcomes for their patients. 

Finally, it is important that the Government moves swiftly to implement the aforementioned Academy’s other recommendations for reforming the regulation of health research for the benefit of patients and researchers.   These include the establishment of a single regulator, the Health Research Agency (HRA), and embedded National Research and Governance Service (NRGS) to ensure timely and streamlined approval of clinical trials and other studies.  The Health and Social Care Bill will have important implications for how the HRA might operate in practice not least in setting out the roles and functions of other regulators.

As you may be aware, the Coalition Government committed to a strong and sustained budget for health research in the Spending Review.  We welcomed that decision.  We hope that you will now support AMRC and its members in urging Ministers to ensure that the potential of this funding is  realised for patients by ensuring that the NHS is fit for research now and in the future

Yours faithfully,

Simon Denegri, Chief Executive