A £6.7 million financial boost has been awarded to Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust to create a city-wide early translational patient safety research programme, along with The University of Manchester.
Provided under the NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centres (PSTRC) Scheme, this latest award by the Department of Health will be used to fund cutting-edge research by the NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centre Greater Manchester (Greater Manchester PSTRC) for a further five years.
The winning bid was coordinated by the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC), demonstrating the benefits of bringing together clinical and research expertise from across healthcare and academia to deliver both patient safety and patient-orientated, translational research.
The new funding will enable Greater Manchester PSTRC to continue innovative research into patient safety in primary care and across transitional care settings on important issues such as informatics, medication safety and safer care for marginalised groups.
Greater Manchester PSTRC is a partnership between Salford Royal and the University of Manchester. It also has strong links with the University of Nottingham, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
Stephen Campbell, Director of the PSTRC and Professor of Primary Care Research in the Faculty’s Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care, said: “We are delighted to receive this investment, which will enable us to build on the world-leading research infrastructure we already have in here in Manchester.
“It will be a multi-sector partnership and future facing, aiming to focus not just on patient safety retrospectively, but also ways of predicting and preventing patient safety incidents in primary care and in transitional settings. It will help us create a world leading learning health system that will improve safety and reduce costs.”
Chris Brookes, Executive Medical Director at Salford Royal, said: “Patient safety is at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to ensuring that every patient receives safe, clean and personal care and our work with the Greater Manchester Primary Care Patient Safety Translational Research Centre contributes greatly to that. This investment will enable us to carry out further work across our integrated healthcare systems.”
Professor Ian Greer, MAHSC Director and Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at the University, added: “This welcome funding boost is as a result of the joined up approach to health care research and services that is a major strength of the Greater Manchester region. As a result of working across agencies and forming strong partnerships we can deliver projects like this which ultimately benefit the health of people in the region and further afield.”