APPENDIX 86
Memorandum from Elizabeth Hirst
SUMMARY
Concerns over MRC proposals to move NIMR into
the centre of London in association with a single hospital in
order to apply the progress made in basic science to the prevention
and treatment of human diseases
1. Mill Hill has enormous potential for
greatly increased clinical collaborations with the very best,
most appropriate speciality hospitals and academic centres wherever
they may be in London or worldwide. It is highly unlikely that
any one general hospital would provide the very best in so many
clinical specialisations. MRC have identified areas of human health
requiring future attention (respiratory, cardiac and infectious
diseases, cancer, aging, obesity, mental health and health inequalities).
Clinical priorities will change rapidly and the renewed Institute
will need to respond swiftly to form necessary collaborations
There will be constraints to this if associated with a single
hospital site. As an independent Institute Mill Hill is also more
recognisable as a "National" asset
2. Clinical scientists already working at
Mill Hill expressed the collective opinion to the CEO that on
there are too many clinical distractions on a hospital site and
it was preferable to concentrate on research away from patients.
3. Mill Hill as it is at present has been
compared to theoretical future visions at KCL and UCL. MRC has
expressed an unexplained resistance to considering the future
theoretical potential of the Mill Hill site to achieve the Task
Force's vision for the renewed Institute. This resistance was
reflected in the electronic Consultation exercise which forced
the person answering to order options which were unacceptable
to them otherwise it would not "send" and the very short
times given for NIMR to respond to critical decisions regarding
it's future (eg six weeks for the original FIS document). Staff
at Mill Hill were also informed by the CEO that the Mill Hill
"option" was not being put forward to the relevant Council
meeting because they were "so excited" about the KCL
and UCL options.
4. It is also of great concern that previous
attempts to move functional groups or to create a National centre
of clinical excellence in association with a hospital (eg CRC
at Northwick Park hospital) met with failure for a variety of
extremely complex reasons most of which were not anticipated.
The proposed move assumes that the reasons (eg why medical and
scientific staff remained as "two separate communities"
and why an "appropriate form of governance was lacking"
etc) are fully understood and will not be repeated. The proposed
move runs a serious risk of losing the excellence in basic research
that NIMR currently enjoys and losing essential research support
staff.
5. It is also by no means guaranteed that
the additional funding and facilities necessary for any move will
be available, nor is it possible to know what the cost of any
move will finally turn out to be.
23 November 2004
| 
