General Practice and Primary Care

NRS Primary Care Network

NRSPCN is the National Primary Care Research Network in Scotland and is funded by the Chief Scientist Office. The West Node is based in General Practice and Primary Care, within the School of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow, and covers the following areas:

• Greater Glasgow & Clyde
• Ayrshire & Arran
• Lanarkshire
• Dumfries & Galloway

The Network is led by the Network Manager and supported by Scottish Primary Care Clinical Lead, Dr Bhautesh Jani. The staff are based in five 'nodes' covering all Health Board regions in Scotland. They are here to help:

• Recruit practices and professionals to high-quality studies of relevance to primary care
• Liaise with Principal Investigators to clarify protocols and expectations
• Provide a contact point for local Principal Investigators who require recruitment of practices or professionals into a study
• Provide practices with an expert service to identify potentially eligible patients via electronic database searches and prepare the ethically approved letters to be sent out by the practice.
• Troubleshoot where recruitment is problematic by monitoring the involvement of recruited practices and professionals in studies and taking steps to remedy any problems that occur
• Provide feedback on the results of each study to the primary care professionals/practices that helped with that study
• Contribute to the maintenance and development of a national database of primary care research activity in Scotland
• Calculate the costs of involving primary care staff in research and arrange reimbursement from the NHS support cost budget for eligible funded studies
• Contribute to the national network team, working with other regional nodes, central staff and other networks in Scotland

The NRS Primary Care Network works with a wide range of primary care health professionals and promotes research in areas for which primary care has a particular responsibility. These include:

• Disease prevention
• Health promotion
• Screening and early diagnosis
• Management of long-term conditions, such as arthritis and heart disease

Researchers are encouraged to seek Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) for their projects. The Network can provide access to PPI training for researchers and give advice on PPI costings to include in the funding application. The Network has its own PPI group which can assist if required, and researchers who would like this input are encouraged to discuss their project at a Network PPI group meeting. If you would like assistance with PPI, please contact our PPI coordinator at nrsprimarycarenetworkadmin@dundee.ac.uk

The NRSPCN works in collaboration with the disease specific networks and is open to all researchers and primary care professionals. We only assist with research studies that are of high quality, relevant to primary care and which appropriately reimburse professionals for their time. Further information about eligible funders - Funding for NHS research infrastructure.

The NRSPCN manages the support for science funds to reimburse practices for their participation in eligibly funded research studies. We can calculate and administer support costs, offer practical support by carrying out activities such as suitable patient identification, mailing of invitations to patients etc, thus minimising the use of practice staff time and disruption in the practice.