Director of Health and Care Research Wales thanks NHS research community for their dedication and the difference they make

To mark the 75th anniversary of the health service, Professor Kieran Walshe, Director of Health and Care Research Wales, has thanked the NHS research community for the difference they make to improve services and treatments for patients across the country.

Professor Walshe said that the celebration was a ‘great opportunity’ to look back not only at the history of medical advances that have been driven by research, but also to the future, and the vital role that research plays in driving forward improvements.

He said: “Research is vitally important to the NHS, and we saw that very clearly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when research found ways of treating patients who had covid, and importantly developed the vaccines that helped us to find our way out of that crisis.

“At the moment we are facing huge pressures in the NHS, and research is again helping us to find ways of improving services and improving the way that we treat patients to find our way through things like the surgical backlog.”

Earlier this year, Health and Care Research Wales launched a new three-year plan which we are seeking to deliver with our partners in the NHS, social care, higher education and in industry, with additional annual funding from Welsh Government.

Our organisation is supporting the Wales Cancer Research Strategy, and has created a new research centre for Adult Social Care, as well as funding the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre, which exists to provide evidence synthesis to support decision making by senior clinicians and leaders across the NHS and social care sector in Wales.

Additionally, we are working to improve our collaboration with industry partners, and have established a new Health and Care Research Wales Faculty to support individuals who are engaged in research, whether in the NHS, higher education or social care, so that they become the future research leaders of tomorrow.

Professor Walshe added:

Health and Care Research Wales exists to see great research being done which improves our scientific knowledge and understanding, and which ultimately results in improvements to services for patients and communities in Wales.”