Boost for NHS clinical research to benefit diabetes

The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has visited an NHS research centre in Birmingham at the same time that the coalition government has said it will provide GBP100 million in funding to help develop new treatments for patients with a range of conditions, including diabetes.
The grant, by the National Institute for Health Research, is to be spent on research nurses and technicians to be employed at NHS facilities around England to support work by clinical research facilities.
At the centre in Birmingham, itself receiving GBP12.8 million from the fund, Mr Lansley commented “These researchers will push forward the boundaries of what is possible. These are the people and the facilities where the very best new treatments will be developed for a huge range of conditions – from cancer to diabetes and heart disease.”
Research facilities such as that at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust and Birmingham Children’s Hospital will benefit from the announcement.
Sally Davies, chief medical officer and chief scientific advisor at the Department of Health also pointed out “The clinical research facilities will play a key role in supporting advances in treatments for a wide variety of diseases and supporting collaboration with industry.”