17 April 2020

Trust research team focuses on RECOVERY

The Trust is actively involved in a national clinical trial called The RECOVERY Trial.

This urgent study, supported by Public Health England and the Department of Health aims to identify treatments that may be beneficial for adults hospitalised with COVID-19.

Since receiving the green light 3 weeks ago, the research team at BHT has recruited almost 100 patients to the RECOVERY Trial, led by Dr Raha West, an anaesthetist and ICU doctor.

This impressive achievement has currently put us 7th nationally in the top highest recruiters along side 160 other hospital trusts.

A range of potential treatments have been suggested for COVID-19 but nobody knows if any of them will turn out to be more effective in helping people recover than the usual standard hospital care which all patients receive.

Data from the trial will be regularly reviewed so that any effective treatment can be identified quickly and made available to all patients.

The RECOVERY Trial team led by the University of Oxford will constantly review information on new drugs and include promising ones in the trial.

Dr West said: “My team and I have been working extremely hard to contribute every way we can to make a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our patients and families have been absolutely incredible in supporting us. All of our healthcare professional staff including, the research, medical, anaesthetic, ICU and microbiology teams, pharmacists and ward nurses have all been completely on board in helping us in this study, while at the same time working very hard on the frontline.

“We urge our patients and the public to continue to support us so that we can quickly find treatments to help people recover from COVID-19."