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The precarious position of clinical research in the NHS joins the growing concerns about the future of the healthcare workforce, with a declining number of clinical academics and GPs.

A recent letter sent by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee to the Minister of State for Health and Social Care outlines the case for increasing engagement with research to enhance patient care and help the NHS mitigate workforce challenges by improving recruitment and retention of staff.

Dr Katie Petty-Saphon, CEO of the Medical Schools Council said:

“I’m thrilled to see that our arguments about supporting research in the NHS have been summarised in this comprehensive and invaluable letter, which very clearly highlights the position of clinical academics and researchers today. It has become abundantly clear that the NHS must adapt and evolve to meet the demands and needs of the population, and it is only through research that the healthcare system can begin to change and equip itself for the future.”

The letter argues that clinical academia is essential for the NHS and the wider medical research community, being the bridge between academia and healthcare – bringing insights from clinical work into research, and vice versa. Such an overlap will lead to greater innovation and development of the latest medical techniques, efficiency and subsequently the tools to address the current backlog. Clinical academia is the key to creating and fostering a strong foundation for the healthcare system.

The letter highlights key recommendations:

• To address the declining numbers of clinical academics and clinical researchers, by addressing inequalities in total renumeration that disincentivise clinical academia as a career path.
• Governmental research funders should help to address the career precarity of clinical academics at the postdoctoral level by offering more longer-term postdoctoral positions.
• The recommended NHS consultant pensions and tax should be implemented at the earliest opportunity to remove the perverse incentives for early retirement.
• Clinical academics and GPs engaged in research should be contractually able to apply for local clinical excellence awards.
• The NHS should implement mentorship schemes in different regions, respecting equality, diversity and inclusion, to ensure that would-be clinical academics have examples to follow.
• The Government and its research funders of research should address these regional inequalities, for example through additional ring-fenced funding for clinical academia in certain regions, bursaries for clinical academics in less well-off areas, and/or hub-and-spoke models where established centres can support those in the surrounding region.
• NHS trusts and hospitals must set out a plan as to how they will meet the statutory commitment to allow consultants to spend an average of 25% of their time on supporting professional activities on average.
• The Government should determine the factors behind the decline in intercalated BScs and review the role of the intercalated BSc in the training of clinical academics. Medical schools must expose trainee doctors to clinical research, even where the intercalated BSc is not mandated or offered.
• Governmental funders of research and frameworks for awarding academic funding such as the Research Excellence Framework should further incentivise research that engages with clinicians. Governmental research funders should also support initiatives such as pairing schemes which bring together clinicians with academic partners.
• The Department for Health and Social Care should work with the NHS to identify specific metrics for research performance, which should be reported on annually by integrated care boards. These reports should be made to the Secretary of State under the overall supervision of the Chief Scientific Advisor for the DHSC.

 Read the full letter: Clinical academics in the NHS inquiry