APPENDIX 46
Memorandum from the British Medical Association
(BMA)
The British Medical Association (BMA) is a voluntary,
professional association that represents all doctors from all
branches of medicine across the UK. About 80% of practising doctors
are members, as are nearly 14,000 medical students and over 3,000
members overseas.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
— Co-operation between departments
of science and medicine has led to many advances in healthcare
(paragraphs 2-6);
— Sustaining and developing student
capacity in English science departments, particularly chemistry,
is vital to support medical research capability and an expansion
of doctor numbers (paragraphs 7-9); we are also concerned about
reducing capacity in microbiology, anatomy and physiology (10
-11);
— Maintaining regional capacity in
scientific subjects would promote medicine departments' abilities
to pioneer collaborative research and better facilitate quality
teaching in the sciences for medical undergraduates (12-14).
MAIN SUBMISSION
1. The BMA welcomes the Select Committee's
inquiry into strategic science provision in English Universities.
We are particularly pleased to note the emphasis on the need for
a strategic approach; we believe there is a need for something
more than a reliance on market forces alone.
2. There is an intrinsic link between an
academic science sector that is in robust health and a successful
and world-leading medical research base in the UK. The fortunes
of scientific and medical research and application are in many
ways inter-dependent, and we would urge the Select Committee to
consider this key issue as part of their investigation and recommendations.
COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN
DEPARTMENTS OF
SCIENCE AND
MEDICINE
3. Medical breakthroughs often flow from
collaboration between departments of science and medicine. Closures
of science departments will cut off access to the range of knowledge
vital for ground-breaking medical research.
4. By way of illustration, one such example
of a current collaboration is at Imperial College, where a team
is currently investigating the mechanisms of anaesthesia, one
team member working on the physical principles of molecular systems
and the other on the clinical effects.
5. Another is at Liverpool University, where
physicists and other scientists have provided expert advice to
medical academic staff in solving issues of joint wear in prosthetics.
Without this expertise in metal interactions and alloys, tendon
reconstruction and joint replacement being available, the consequent
advances in healthcare would not have been possible.
6. Similar examples of collaboration underpin
much of the expansion of the UK and international medical knowledge
base, which has delivered many of the improvements to healthcare
(both in terms of cost and effectiveness) which today are taken
for granted; the development and implementation of imaging technology,
such as MRI scanners and laser treatments would not have been
possible without strong university departments of physics. Exploring
the potential benefits of nanotechnologies for healthcare will
rely on collaboration between medical academic staff and experts
in the material and pharmaceutical sciences, amongst others.
CHEMISTRY
7. The Association is concerned about the
potentially negative impact the closure of chemistry departments
will have on the numbers of chemistry graduates.
8. Chemistry graduates are vital to medicine
for many reasons, but perhaps most notably:
— They teach chemistry at secondary
schools to the next generation of medical students; Chemistry
"A" level is still a requirement for entry to most medical
undergraduate courses.
— They are essential partners in supporting
medical research capability, particularly in laboratory based
research.
9. We are therefore anxious about the closures
or reconfigurations of chemistry departments; in The Times
Higher Education Supplement (28 January), it was reported
that Leicester was to make significant cuts to its staff numbers
in Chemistry, with concerns raised about the long-term viability
of the subject.
BIOLOGY
10. Applied microbiology is an area of key
importance to medicine, be it in combating MRSA or developing
vaccines; there are a whole host of other public health applications.
Yet the training of microbiologists is under threat. We are informed
by colleagues in the Society for Applied Microbiology for example
that the pressure on university budgets has meant that less and
less practical teaching is taking place in what is a relatively
expensive subject, and that as a result there are increasing numbers
of graduates who do not have the basic skills to become microbiologists.
This will undoubtedly impact on the practice of pathology and
important research into disease.
11. Anatomy and physiology are also being
lost. In some cases this is because of curriculum redesign, but
the intended alternative method of teaching anatomy, radiology,
is also facing cuts due to funding pressures, often the consequence
of the Research Assessment Exercise.
REGIONAL CAPACITY
12. The BMA is in favour of a strong regional
capacity in medical teaching and research, to facilitate expansion
in doctor numbers and extend the boundaries of knowledge and inquiry
amongst greater numbers of medics. We are also aware of public
health research projects being run at medical schools which are
tailored to serving the needs of the people in their immediate
vicinity, such as a recent study into the incidence of diabetes
amongst the Asian community, which is of clear benefit to the
local populations. By extension, not least because of the importance
of collaborative and mutually beneficial work outlined above,
we also support regional capacity in the sciences.
13. Because much collaboration is still
done through physical meetings, either by formal or informal networking,
a regional capacity in science is necessary to support the strength
of medical research and teaching in the local medical school,
and vice versa.
14. A striking example in respect of the
importance of regional capacity is again provided by anaesthesia.
The vast majority of academic departments of anaesthesia in London
have been closed within the last decade; three remain, from 12
in 1997. In a recent case, when a coroner wanted an opinion regarding
an aspect of anaesthesia, he had only one academic expert which
he could call upon to provide advice. Academic experts in science
and medicine are undoubtedly required every day by both the public
services and private concerns.
January 2005
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