Medical trainees at our Trust have joined in the fight against COVID-19 by getting involved in a special research study.
They have helped recruit patients in the University Hospital of North Tees to the national Recovery research trial.
The organisation is second in the country for the proportion of COVID patients it has recruited to the study.
Ben Prudon is a respiratory consultant and the Trust’s study lead. He said: “The trial has been designed to assess potentially useful treatments for patients who are unwell enough with COVID to require hospital treatment.
“The only way to do that is to perform research.
“We have been one of the best performing trusts in the country. We’ve had the highest proportion of patients admitted with COVID involved in the trial.
“Without the medical trainees we would not have been as successful as we have been.”
The study has already had some standout successes – including the finding that steroid medication Dexamethasone is an effective treatment.
And the trust has had a number of successes. This includes being the first to recruit a patient for REGN-COV2 treatment in the UK and one of the first regionally to recruit a child to the study.
Foundation year two doctor Sai Wunnava said: “The trust got the junior doctors involved from the start.
“We were able to give more patients different medications. And through that we were able to work out which medications have actually offered a benefit.
“If I were to look back and think about my role during the pandemic, I think I have been able to do more and help more people by being part of the trial.”
