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James Frith MP, minister for health innovation, visited St Bartholomew’s Hospital on Wednesday 21 October to see how we are delivering clinical trials faster for patients.

The visit coincided with new national data demonstrating the government has met its commitment to reduce commercial clinical trial set-up times. Barts Health is one of the strongest-performing trusts in the country, currently ranking fourth nationally against the 90-day site set-up target for trusts with a similar research portfolio.

The minister, joined by Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and CEO of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), were welcomed to St Bartholomew’s by senior leadership before being shown around the clinical research facilities by Professor Tom Powles, chair of the Barts Cancer Centre.

The visit provided a fantastic opportunity to outline our new Clinical Research Delivery Strategy (2026-2030+), setting out how we will expand research further across specialties and care settings, and ensure every patient can access research opportunities regardless of hospital site and medical specialty.

The minister heard about the challenges of setting up and running trials in cancer during the tour, and had the opportunity to speak to patients, Wesley and Nigel, about their experiences of taking part in research. Research nurse, Anna Sikorska, and lead clinical trials practitioner, Anjali Sivajothi, outlined the day-to-day practicalities of delivering clinical trials and what it means for our patients and staff.

The visit concluded with a tour of the imaging facilities, where the minister saw two MRI scanners in action and spoke to radiographers about their work, both at St Bartholomew’s and across the Trust. Claudio Melchiorri, research operations manager, and Dr Mays Jawad, associate director of research quality, discussed the investment that we and partners like NIHR and Barts Charity have made in research infrastructure supporting safe, efficient trial delivery and how we’re working to maintain performance against the national set-up targets.

On the visit, James Frith MP, minister for health innovation, said

I was delighted to visit St Bartholomew’s Hospital to see first-hand how research is being brought into everyday patient care and what that can mean for patients and their families.

The cutting-edge research here offers patients and families hope of treatments that once seemed unimaginable.

This is part of our mission to get new treatments to patients faster and make the UK a global leader in medical research.

Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and CEO of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), said:

It was a pleasure visiting St Bartholomew’s Hospital to see the incredible dedication of research teams delivering cutting-edge clinical trials for patients.

Accelerating trial set-up is vital to ensuring patients across the country get faster access to innovative treatments. Barts Health is setting a high standard and, powered by the NIHR's research infrastructure, these improvements demonstrate how streamlining clinical trial delivery can bring real benefit to patients, staff, and the wider health service.

Dr Jenny Rivers, director of research & development at Barts Health, said:

It was a pleasure to welcome the minister and Professor Chappell to Barts Health to see how our clinical trials are delivered. Our teams have worked hard to make trial set-up faster and more efficient, and it’s gratifying to see that reflected in our national performance.

Our performance is important because of the impact our research activity has for our patients and our staff. Every trial we set up quickly is a patient who gets access to a new treatment sooner and demonstrates our track record when attracting collaboration and investment to be able to grow our research portfolio.

We serve one of the most diverse populations in the country, and our ambition is for research to be a routine part of the care we offer to everyone who comes through our doors.

To find out more about research at Barts Health and the impact it is making for our patients, see our latest report.

Banner image (L-R): Prof Sanjiv Sharma, Prof Sir Mark Caulfield, Dr Mays Jawad, Prof Andrew Wragg, Prof Lucy Chappell, Prof Charles Knight OBE, James Frith MP, Claudio Melchiorri, Dr Jenny Rivers, Prof Tom Powles.