Sherwood Forest Hospital Trust, which runs Newark Hospital, joins fight against coronavirus in ground-breaking new study

Newark and Sherwood's hospital trust has recruited covid-19 patients to take part in a ground-breaking new study in the fight against coronavirus.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals (SFH) has joined the study of the disease announced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, said to help us better understand the virus’ varied effects on people and support the search for treatments.

It is performed by the partnership between the GenOMICC Study Consortium ­— led by the University of Edinburgh ­— and Genomics England.

SFH is now recruiting for people to participate in the study and has already taken in 23 coronavirus-positive patients.

The project will work with over 170 NHS hospitals and aims to sequence the genomes of 20,000 people severely ill with the virus.

The data will then be compared to that from a further 15,000 patients who experienced only mild covid-19 symptoms. This data will be collected from participants in the 100,000 Genomes Project and UK Biobank.

Two thousand patients have been recruited to the GenOMICC study already.

Liz Gemmill, SFH research and innovation director, said: “We’re really excited and proud to be participating and supporting the Genomicc study. This study plays a vital role in gaining new insights into how this virus affects us and our vision is to help find a cure.

"In line with Matt Hancock’s announcement we would like to give our patients the best chance to take part in this study. Please contact us on 01623 622 515 extension 3990 to find out how you can support this and your trust.”