What is the positive change that has emerged through new collaborations or partnerships during Covid-19 that your project is going to embed?

In normal times, in Secondary and Primary Care settings, showcasing the importance of research to staff and patients is an ongoing task undertaken by research teams. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in all settings, the importance of research is obvious.

However, there is necessarily less interaction between patients and staff in GP Practices due to COVID-19. Research teams embedded in GP Practices are now almost invisible and unfortunately, less accessible to their colleagues and patients. Noticeboards are no longer seen and crucially, research staff are not physically on site for opportunistic recruitment nor approaching patients to offer opportunities to consider research study participation.

We have accessed virtual options, with support from our practice and CCG, to communicate our ongoing, albeit differently delivered, research activity with our staff cohort. Recording patients’ experiences more formally for our website, showcasing ongoing and safely-delivered research activity, is another option worth exploring to ensure recruitment continues.