Funding 'crisis' in medical units

The BMA says the situation will worsen a shortage of radiologists

Some specialist areas of medicine face a crisis because of the way research is funded, a doctors' leader has said.

The focusing of UK research funding on the very highest rated departments was blighting areas such as anaesthetics and radiology, said Michael Rees.

Professor Rees, of the British Medical Association, said many university departments' funding had been cut.

As a result, some speciality areas had been forced to cut back on academic staff or close altogether, he said.

Closures

The warnings echo comments Prof Rees made last month about the future of medicine in the UK in general, due to shortcomings in university funding.

But he said the specialist areas were particularly at risk because of their dependence on team and inter-disciplinary work "not properly recognised" by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which rates university departments.

We face the disappearance of certain specialities from medicine departments altogether Prof Michael Rees, BMA

In 1997, for instance, there were 12 academic departments of anaesthesia in London, he said. Only three remain.

In psychiatry, more than a quarter of all academic posts in the UK had been cut, and a quarter of posts in academic pathology had gone between 2000 and 2003.

Professor Michael Rees, who heads the BMA's medical academic committee, said: "The system's rating criteria are biased against medical research - and have left key specialities scrambling to survive."

He added: "As medical schools cut back on posts to balance their books, we face the disappearance of certain specialities from medicine departments altogether."

Explanation

He has written to the Department for Education and Skills and the Higher Education Funding Council for England proposing a series of reforms to the RAE.

The shadow higher education minister, Chris Grayling, has also asked for an explanation.

"This is further evidence of the flaws in the DfES' current system of academic research funding," he said.

"First it was architecture and languages, then it was chemistry and physics - now it's vital medical courses such as radiology and pharmacology that are under threat."

A Department for Education and Skills spokesperson said the government was "absolutely committed" to science and research and was increasing overall funding.

"However, we want institutions to play to their strengths. It is imperative to concentrate this increased funding in world class research especially as the number of departments conducting world class research in English institutions grew by 324 in the last Research Assessment Exercise."