NHS patients can expect to be informed of approved research that is relevant to their health and care
The NHS Constitution published in January 2009, commits to innovation and to the promotion and conduct of research to improve the current and future health and care of the population. The commitment features in one of seven key principles - the principle that the NHS aspires to high standards of excellence and professionalism.
The NHS Constitution includes pledges about access to information and informed choice. The Handbook to the draft NHS Constitution explains on page 51 how these pledges will apply to research. It says:
| " Research is a core part of the NHS. Research enables the NHS to improve the current and future health of the people it serves. The NHS will do all it can to ensure that patients, from every part of England, are made aware of research that is of particular relevance to them. The NHS is therefore putting in place procedures to ensure that patients are notified of opportunities to join in relevant ethically approved research and will be free to choose whether they wish to do so." (Handbook to the NHS Constitution, January 2009) |
The Government will introduce a number of measures to deliver this commitment to let NHS patients know about research that is relevant to them and about its core role at the heart of the NHS, They will include:
- the commitment to research in the NHS Constitution;
- procedures to notify relevant patients about appropriate opportunities for them to join in approved clinical trials if they choose to;
- building on the new Research Capability Programme within Connecting for Health to enable NHS staff to see information about approved clinical trials being conducted in the NHS across the country, so that the NHS can inform patients about research that is relevant to them.
Together, these measures will reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and help eligible patients who wish to take part in research to do so swiftly and easily.
This means that in future, all patients in the NHS will have the right to expect that their health record will be used, in confidence, by a health professional or by a person who has the same duty of confidentiality as a health professional, to identify whether they are suitable to take part in approved research which is relevant to them. Appropriate patients will be notified of opportunities to join in, and will be free to choose whether they wish to do so, after a full explanation.