New research head hopes to improve lives

Tonny Veenith said he wanted to set up a regional clinical trials hub

A new head of medical research has said he aims to improve people's lives in Wolverhampton by the end of the decade.

Prof Tonny Veenith will be based in the Integrated Critical Care Unit at New Cross Hospital.

Wolverhampton has the second-highest health inequalities in the country, he said, adding that improving those would be "ground breaking".

A range of circumstances affect health inequalities, including income and type of employment, and they can affect people's life expectancy and the health conditions they experience.

As an example, Prof Veenith said he was seeing people aged 40 to 45 with no risk factors come in to hospitals with cardiac arrests "which shouldn't happen".

He said his unit would look to understand how acute conditions could be prevented and diagnosed earlier.

Prof Veenith also said he wanted to set up a regional clinical trials unit with the help of the University of Wolverhampton to understand how the problems have developed.

"I want us to embrace clinical awareness to improve the process to win grants to do more research," he added.

Tackling those inequalities, he said, would ultimately "have a long-lasting effect on our city and population".