The past six months has required us all to adjust to unprecedented circumstances in both our professional and personal lives that would have been unthinkable at the start of the year.
The way in which colleagues have supported the NCA research effort has been incredible and I would like to thank all you all for the way in which you have uniquely contributed.
We recognise the huge effort required in establishing a programme of research and it was a credit to colleagues that they were willing to pause their activity in order to fully support our response to Covid-19. We are now in the process of restarting some our non-Covid research activity and the determination and professionalism shown by our research teams to re-establish this work has been fantastic. The invaluable contribution that support services, such as pharmacy and pathology, have played in supporting research during this time has been amazing. Indeed without the support of these services we could not have delivered to any of our important interventional studies.
It is a great tribute to all those involved in research across the NCA that more than 3,500 patients have so far been recruited to Covid-19 Urgent Public Health (UPH) studies. This is more than any other organisation in Manchester and is among the very best recruitment in England. This outstanding performance required colleagues to be agile and implement new ways of working. UPH studies form a key part of the global response to the pandemic and we should be proud of the work we have supported so far, which has already led to the development of new treatments for Covid-19.
I would also like to extend my thanks to those colleagues that have remotely supported research and innovation activities. The way in which staff adapted to this new, and initially challenging, way of working was fantastic and helped ensure we retained our position as one of the leading R&I services in the country.
A huge thank you also to those staff redeployed to new areas both within and outside research who conducted themselves in a professional and supportive manner.
Thank you for your incredible support and helping us provide so many of our patients with access to the latest treatments for Covid-19.