The NIHR’s (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Be Part of Research service on the app is part of the Government’s 10-year health plan.
It takes around 100 days to set up a trial in
Spain, but approximately 250 days in the NHS, DHSC said.
The department projected the plan will see commercial trial set-up times fall to 150 by March 2026, which it described as “the most ambitious reduction in trial set-up times in British history”.
Health Secretary
Wes Streeting said: “The 10-year plan for health will marry the genius of our country’s leading scientific minds, with the care and compassion of our health service, to put NHS patients at the front of the queue for new cutting-edge treatments.
“The NHS App will become the digital front door to the NHS, and enable all of us as citizens to play our part in developing the medicines of the future.”
“By slashing through red tape and making it easier for patients to take part, reforms in our 10-year plan will grow our life sciences sector, generate news funds for the NHS to reinvest in frontline care, and benefit patients through better medicines.”
The number of trials sponsored by commercial and non-commercial entities at specific NHS trusts, as well as organisations including universities, will be made public.
This will reveal which are “performing well and which are falling behind”, DHSC added.
Funding for NHS trusts will be prioritised for those who perform the best, DHSC said.
The app announcement comes as the NIHR launches a UK-wide clinical trials recruitment drive.
Studies are “too slow” to set up in the UK because of “unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication of activities across different agencies and sites”, DHSC said.
Researchers must currently agree separate contracts with each relevant area of the NHS, but the
Government has pledged to introduce a “national standardised contract”.
Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser at DHSC and chief executive of the NIHR, said: “Ensuring all sites are consistently meeting the 150-day or less set-up time will bring us to the starting line, but together we aim to go further, faster to ensure the UK is a global destination for clinical research to improve the health and wealth of the nation.”
The global clinical trials market is estimated to be worth at least 80 billion dollars (around £59 billion) by 2030, said Professor
Andrew Morris, president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, which is a fellowship of leading scientists.
