A MULTI-MILLION pound cash injection has been announced for researchers in Bradford to help improve patient safety across the NHS.

The £3 million announcement by Public Health and Innovation Minister, Nicola Blackwood will bring a boost to researchers who are already based at the National Institute for Health Research in the grounds of Bradford Royal Infirmary.

The money means researchers can expand on work from over the past decade to find newer and better ways of keeping patients safer, says Professor Rebecca Lawton who is leading the Bradford research group, known as the new National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Patient Safety Translational Research Centre covering Yorkshire and Humber.

There are already Patient Safety Translational Research Centres in London and Manchester doing similar work and having an impact on NHS frontline services. Researchers in Bradford will use their new funding to work alongside patients and NHS staff to discover new methods of delivering better patient care and outcomes.

Examples of what that work will do include getting patients an early diagnosis of cancer through their GPs and primary care, helping get people off medications they no longer need, monitoring safety in hospital using patient feedback and how Smart phones or apps could be used to collect information.

Researchers have already succeeded in developing a world-first system of getting patients’ feedback onto the wards so staff can take action and make improvements.

Making today’s funding announcement, which is part of a wider £17m research fund, the Public Health and Innovation Minister said: “Investing today in research to improve patient safety is essential for making the NHS the best today, and for tackling the challenges of tomorrow. Our investments through the NIHR will help our researchers strive for global excellence.”

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Medical Director, Dr Bryan Gill, added: “The creation of a Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre is a fantastic achievement for the region.

"With this funding, we will develop a centre of international excellence in patient safety research by bringing together a research community with a common purpose - to deliver high quality research that addresses the needs of the whole NHS, and leads to even better outcomes for our patients.