CLINICAL research in Britain can look forward to a more secure future, at least in the short term. An agreement between two medical schools and a college of the University of London has virtually assured the survival of the Medical Research Council鈥檚 Clinical Sciences Centre, the centrepiece of the council鈥檚 拢15.6 million initiative for applying basic research to healthcare.
The decision, announced just before Christmas, comes after two years of doubt about the centre鈥檚 future as London鈥檚 healthcare is reorganised. The Tomlinson report, published in October 1992, recommended cutting the number of hospital beds in London by 2500, streamlining services and halving the number of medical schools. And since last April, the so-called Special Health Authorities 鈥� teaching hospitals attached to research institutes 鈥� have been exposed to the NHS鈥檚 鈥渋nternal market鈥�, creating severe pressures on funding.
The Clinical Sciences Centre, based at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in the Hammersmith Hospital, west London, has been handicapped by fears that the hospital itself would close. The centre鈥檚 problems were highlighted when its newly appointed head, the geneticist Kay Davies, resigned, partly because of the difficulty of recruiting good staff.
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Now the Royal Postgraduate Medical School has announced that it and the nearby Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School will merge in 1996. More importantly, the merged schools will then join Imperial College, London. With its earlier absorption of another London medical school, St Mary鈥檚, this will make Imperial College one of the largest medical training centres in the country. A new building for undergraduates is planned at Imperial鈥檚 South Kensington site.
Colin Dollery, the dean of the RPMS, claims that the changes could lead to a medical research centre 鈥渙f awesome strength on the international scene鈥�. He says the Clinical Sciences Centre will benefit from the merger. Neuroscience and cancer research will be focuses of activity, he says. He also hopes that the gene transfer programme, which Davies was to have led, will now be 鈥減ut back on track鈥�. The MRC welcomed the decision, which will strengthen the CSC鈥檚 future.
Nevertheless, Dollery admits there are 鈥渕ajor worries鈥� about the poor quality of much of the research at Charing Cross & Westminster, which fared poorly in an assessment by the Universities Funding Council.