Universities condemn plan to switch medical cash to health budget

Oxford and Cambridge universities have condemned proposals to transfer funding for medical research and education worth more than £800m to the Department of Health, warning the money could be diverted to fill more pressing holes in the NHS budget.

Ahead of next week's 2015-16 spending review, Vince Cable, business secretary, is still in negotiations with the Treasury over how to achieve a £1.5bn cut to his £21bn budget.

As discussions intensify, several cabinet ministers including Mr Cable and Philip Hammond, defence secretary, have tried to redefine some areas of their spending as health-related, in an attempt to move the burden to the health department's ringfenced budget.

However, senior figures at Oxford university have lobbied Downing Street against moving certain funds - thought to be £500m in medical research spending and £330m of medical education finance - away from the business department.

Andrew Hamilton, the university's vice-chancellor, told the Financial Times this could put at risk long-term projects crucial for producing the highest quality research.

"We are . . . concerned that transferring medical education and research budgets to the Department of Health will allow the short-term considerations of government ministers to influence funding decisions," Prof Hamilton said. "The Department of Health's main priority is the provision of health services and we believe this should be separated from education and research in medicine."

Cambridge university is particularly anxious about the impact on medical education. "A change to the funding arrangements runs the risk that urgent and acute patient needs of the NHS will conflict with the longer-term requirements of medical education," the university said. "Robust mechanisms will be needed to ensure that medical education is protected."

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He told the FT that the present system of funding had evolved over decades and had created "a powerful, effective, interconnected system of knowledge creation, dissemination and application, with clear health and wealth benefits, which is, quite frankly, the envy of the world".

David Willetts, higher education minister, reassured MPs last week that, even if the funding transfer did go ahead, the "Haldane principle" - that research funding decisions are made by academics rather than politicians - would be upheld.

"We will make sure that the money is not used for other things [aside from research] and that, if there is any change, the vital, basic research that the Medical Research Council carries out is not jeopardised," Mr Willetts said.

One government official admitted the intervention by the universities was not ideal for Mr Cable but said it would have little impact on his negotiating position with the chancellor.

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