Job responsibilities
St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust undertakes a range of Reproductive health & Childbirth research trials, and is developing the research portfolio as part of the Fetal health strategy. This project will contribute to a number of research initiatives within that portfolio.
St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust is one of the largest healthcare units in the United Kingdom accommodating around 1170 beds and treating around 80,000 inpatient and day cases, and over 300,000 outpatients annually. The Trust employs over 4000 staff incorporating over 700 Medical & Dental Staff. It provides general acute services together with speciality services including neurosciences, cardiothoracic, and specialist childrens services.
St Georges Hospital is the main teaching hospital in the western sector of the South Thames, and as such has developed links with most district general hospitals throughout South Thames West, and supports a significant training programme for junior doctors who rotate through the Trust.
The Trust is on three sites; St Georges Hospital, the base for acute general medicine and surgical services, the Wolfson Neurorehabilitation Centre in Wimbledon and the Bolingbroke Hospital for care of the elderly patients in Battersea. In 2003 Atkinson Morleys Hospital relocated to the Tooting site. The new purpose-built wing is shared by Neurosciences and Cardiothoracic Services. Accommodation is arranged over four floors, around inner courtyards and incorporates 233 inpatient and day-case beds, eight operating theatres, and a range of state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment facilities.
The Trust serves a resident population of about 300,000 and sits within the South West London Strategic Health Authority and serves six local Primary Care Groups.
St Georges Hospital Medical School
St Georges Hospital Medical School is part of the University of London, and together with St Georges Hospital, is housed in integrated modern buildings in a large joint campus in Tooting, south London. It is a research-based independently governed and funded specialised health-focused School with academic departments in Bio, Behavioural, Clinical and Social Science. The School is closely integrated with the Hospitals extensive secondary and tertiary clinical NHS provision.
Teaching
There are currently over 900 students registered on the five-year MB BS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) course leading to qualification in medicine, and 50 - 60 on intercalated BSc courses. In October 2000, the School introduced an innovative 4-year MBBS course, the Graduate Entry Programme, which accepts 70 entrants annually from any first-degree discipline. Other undergraduate courses include a 3-4 year BSc Biomedical Sciences (35 annual entry).
The Schools Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, managed jointly with Kingston University, has undergraduate and diploma students in Physiotherapy, Radiography, Nursing and Midwifery and Social Work. In addition to its undergraduate degree courses, the school offers multi-professional taught postgraduate courses in a range of subjects. The School has a policy of encouraging interaction between students of different disciplines including, since 1998, a Common Foundation Programme for all Medical, Physiotherapy, Radiography and some Nursing students.
Research interests on the combined Medical School and Hospital site are wide-ranging and increasingly strong, (a 70% increase in external grants and contracts announcements has been achieved since 1997) encompassing a spectrum from basic science investigations to applied clinical and health services research. It is the Schools explicit intention to link basic and clinical research in order to capitalise on their co-location on a single site. The School has a strong tradition of giving younger investigators the intellectual space to develop their careers. Positive interdisciplinary and interdepartmental interactions are the norm.
Research policy is the responsibility of the Schools Research and Development Committee chaired by the Dean of Research. It works closely with the Trusts Research Committee chaired by its Director of Research. Research grant administration is provided by a joint Trust and School Research Office.
About a third of the 150 senior academic staff of the School focus their research in the basic science area including basic work in clinical departments. Many of the basic science research staff have research assistants and/or PhD students and are in receipt of external funding from Research Councils and Charities. As a group these were rated 4 in the last Research Assessment Exercise. A group of similar size is active in clinical research in a variety of areas. This group includes Infectious Diseases and Cardiological Sciences, both of which were flagged as being of special excellence in the last Research Assessment Exercise and have recently received further investment. About 40 staff in Public Health and related disciplines are research active. These include Epidemiology, which was flagged as being of special excellence in the last Research Assessment Exercise. Recently new appointments have been initiated in this area with the aim of strengthening research teams working in public health, primary care, and health services research. In addition to some 150 tenured research active senior staff, there are about 200 research assistants and 140 PhD, MD and other research students (both full and part-time). There is a new Chair in Cancer Genetics within the Department of Clinical and Developmental Sciences that has links with other departments.
Funding for research comes mainly from external sources, which are very varied and include the Research Councils, major charities, a wide spectrum of specialist charities, pharmaceutical and other industrial sponsors. Competitive bids are encouraged for funding of equipment, repairs, maintenance contracts or other, often multi-user, facilities by the Equipment Committee, which is a sub-committee of the Research & Development Committee.
Research on the site is nurtured by several recently formed informal theme groups (e.g. in Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Intracellular Pathogens and Molecular Medicine) which organise open days with poster presentations and invited lectures. They meet at interval and are run by elected organising committees. Their aim is to co-ordinate research in their area of interest and to draw together all those on site with a common interest in the theme and to encourage collaborations and organise joint grant applications. The Trust is a portfolio-funded institution of the London Regions NHS Directorate with formal commitments to research in the above themes. Other promising research is supported though a small group and emerging research category.
There are a total of about 150 researchers onsite with close links at the clinical level to research and patient bases in General Practices around the South-est of London, and in associated hospitals. These include Atkinson Morley's (Neurology and Neurosurgery) which has now transferred to a new building to house these clinical service areas and Cardiology. In addition, Pathfinder NHS Trust provides a large psychiatric patient base at the nearby Springfield Hospital. There are also good links with the St Helier Hospital, which like St Georges Hospital is a large general hospital, as well as with a number of other hospitals in the South London area.
Main Duties and Responsibilities:
- To be the main point of contact for patients and participants in research studies
- To assist in the identification and recruitment of patients, ensuring that each patient fulfils the study criteria and effective informed consent is obtained.
- To ensure that the study is conducted strictly in accordance with the study protocol including assisting where necessary with vaccinations and obtaining relevant samples.
- To identify barriers to recruitment and ensure Chief Investigator / Principal Investigators are made aware of these. Identify and implement action plans as required.
- To ensure that all data is recorded accurately and complies with the requirements of the study protocol and the Data Protection Act.
- To work in conjunction with senior colleagues in preparing submissions to the Joint Research Office and Ethics Committees.
- To lead the production of high-quality research reports and/or publications as required by the funding body or for dissemination to the wider academic community.
- To lead relevant meetings associated with the research project or related activities.
- To take lead responsibility for resolving problems affecting the delivery of the research projects.
- To undertake any other duties relevant to the programme of research.
