§ 2.54 p.m.
The Earl of GosfordMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many patients (a) in the United Kingdom and (b) outside the United Kingdom, are affected by the £30,000 cut at the Department of Experimental Chemical Pathology at the Westminster Hospital Medical School; and how many centres (a) in the United Kingdom and (b) outside the United Kingdom, can provide a service which can separate and estimate all four forms of Vitamin B12.
§ Lord EltonMy Lords, the answer to the first part of the noble Earl's Question is none, at least for the present. An alternative source of finance has been secured until the end of the next financial year. In answer to the second part, I can say that I understand that the department is the only centre in the world at present able to separate and estimate the concentration of four forms of Vitamin B12 at present known. There are, however, three other centres in this country that could undertake this work, were it considered necessary so to do; namely, the clinical research centre at North-wick Park, St. Bartholomew's Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital.
The Earl of GosfordMy Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Is he aware that this particular unit has had 16 years' experience and that at this particular time the cuts envisaged would mean a 25 per cent. reduction in staff, which in this case would be two people: Is he further aware that the simultaneous separation of an estimation of the four individual parts of the Vitamin B12 compound is very vital for the treatment of anaemia and progressive blindness, let alone mental retardation, which in severe cases can lead to death?
§ Lord EltonMy Lords, I can answer for the Government but not for the department at the university. I cannot answer for the Westminster Hospital Medical School; I can only observe that they have given a higher priority to many other functions. I understand that this was a considered decision and that it saved them about £30,000 a year. It is not the only place where the work can be done. The money does not come directly from Government; it comes from the University Grants Committee, which sends it to the universities, which decide how to distribute it among their schools and then the departments.
§ Baroness JegerMy Lords, are the Government giving any general consideration to the funding of research, which is of national and international importance, and which at present is having to be met out of the decreasing funds of individual hospitals?—because this is the root of the problem at Westminster.
§ Lord EltonMy Lords, the money which the Government propose to spend on the Medical Research Council next year is £107.4 million, which is an increase over the present year. The money is not diminishing.