Chancellor George Osborne has been urged not to move the UK's medical research and education budgets from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to the Department of Health.
Tony Weetman, chairman of the Medical Schools Council, wrote to Osborne on 30 May to tell him that such a move would pose “a significant threat to the UK’s leading position in health research and education”.
Ahead of the next spending review, and with the triennial review of the research councils underway, one rumour has been that the medical research and education budgets could be moved from BIS to the DH.
Weetman however has argued that funding for medical education should remain at BIS, and that the MRC budget should not be transferred to the National Institute for Health Research.
“Huge pressures already exist within DH and such a transfer would inevitably lead to a narrower understanding of the nation’s complex health needs,” wrote Weetman
He said that a long-term view was needed for educating members of a clinical workforce able to innovate throughout their careers.
“A key element of this is a well calibrated, integrated and properly funded system of education, research and knowledge exchange. This is what we have now.”
Weetman also wrote that while research and education were essential components of patient care, the committed focus on research and scholarship lies within universities.
He pointed to examples of countries that have separated health research from universities, including France, Germany, and Italy, saying that the impact of their research is far less than that of the UK, Canada, and the United States, where biomedical research is fully integrated with universities.
Furthermore, Weetman added “UK scientific papers attract more citations per pound spent than those from across the Atlantic or indeed of anywhere else in the world, demonstrating fantastic value which cannot be squeezed any further.”