4.9. The UKCRD’s immediate focus on commercial clinical trials, combined with the exclusions of rare disease and low-recruiting studies, means this report only covers around 30% of the studies OUH has set-up during this period.
4.10. Notably, commercial clinical trials account for less than 50% of the studies hosted by OUH, and of these around 60% are excluded from the UKCRD 90-day performance metric. Other limitations of the current version of the UKCRD report include the rigid 6-month reporting window and the fact that a study's performance against the 60-day metric is only reported once it has recruited its first participant.
4.11. A more complete comparative overview of performance can be sourced from the NIHR's NHS Trust Study set-up APP. This has been used to source data in the Tables 6 & 7 below, which show OUH's performance on the 60- and 30-day set-up metrics, compared to other Shelford Group Trusts, and to all Trusts in England, in the R&D updates provided to TME since Q3 2025-26.
Table 6. OUH performance to the 60-day metric during 2025-26 and compared to other Trusts in England
| 60-day target | Q1 2025-26 | Q2 2025-26 | Q3 2025-26 | Q4 2025-26 | Total 2025-26 | |||||
| NHS Trusts | Studies | % | Studies | % | Studies | % | Studies | % | Studies | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shelford (not including OUH) | 409 | 414 | 522 | 410 | 1755 | |||||
| Met | 232 | 57% | 230 | 56% | 300 | 57% | 240 | 59% | 1002 | 57% |
| Missed | 177 | 43% | 184 | 44% | 222 | 43% | 170 | 41% | 753 | 43% |
| OUH | 60 | 51 | 43 | 52 | 206 | |||||
| Met | 41 | 68% | 30 | 59% | 15 | 35% | 17 | 33% | 103 | 50% |
| Missed | 19 | 32% | 21 | 41% | 28 | 65% | 35 | 67% | 103 | 50% |
| Not Shelford | 1577 | 1557 | 1604 | 1415 | 6153 | |||||
| Met | 914 | 58% | 926 | 59% | 958 | 60% | 813 | 57% | 3611 | 59% |
| Missed | 663 | 42% | 631 | 41% | 646 | 40% | 602 | 43% | 2542 | 41% |
| Grand Total | 2046 | 100% | 2022 | 100% | 2169 | 100% | 1877 | 100% | 8114 | 100% |
4.12. OUH's overall performance for the full year (50%) is lower than the average for the other Shelford Group Trusts (57%) and for all other NHS Trusts (59%).
4.13. However, only 33% (17) of the 52 OUH studies assessed in Q4 met the 60-day target. This was lower than previous quarters and lower than both Shelford (59%) and other NHS Trusts (57%) in Q4.
4.14. The marked reduction in performance between Q2 (59%) and Q3-4 (35%, 33%) coincided with a change to OUH's interpretation and