Volume 1
Medical research and the NHS reforms / House of Lords, Select Committee on Science and Technology.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
- Date:
- 1995
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Medical research and the NHS reforms / House of Lords, Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![CHAPTER 2 THE R&D STRATEGY A popular initiative 2.1 TheNHS R&D Strategy receives endorsement from across the spectrum of health care and research: — “The commitment of the Government to implement [the report of 1988] and the creation of the R&D Directorate are great successes...The greatest single achievement of the NHS R&D Strategy has been to create within the NHS a belief in, and a strategy for, a knowledge-based health service...Michael Peckham has been in post as Director of R&D for only four years. The achievements in this time have been substantial...The Culyer report...could not have taken place without the R&D Strategy firmly in place” (Dr Malcolm Green, Director of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, p209). — “We have always welcomed the setting up of the NHS R&D Directorate under the leadership of Professor Michael Peckham...The development of the Directorate has continued to command our respect and support” (ABPI, p245). — “In general we are impressed by the NHS R&D Strategy. We like the idea that it is putting R&D on the agenda of the Trusts, the purchasers and the NHS Executive, and that it is involving all the professions...in a much more accountable and open way. We believe that it is important to emphasise what the R&D Strategy does emphasise, that good practice is dependent on good research evidence” (Professor Sir Leslie Turnberg, President of the Royal College of Physicians, speaking for the Conference of Medical Royal Colleges, Q871). — “The professions in which I am involved are particularly keen on the Peckham initiative. They applaud and appreciate the way it is going forward” (Dr Pam Enderby, Chairman, College of Speech and Language Therapists, Q1304); — “We...wish to congratulate Professor Peckham and his colleagues on successfully raising the profile for research in the NHS through securing more funding and establishing a national research infrastructure. We particularly commend the stance taken...in promoting health services research as an important contribution to knowledge generation and improving services” (RCN p329). — “The British Medical Association (BMA) has fully supported the NHS R&D Strategy, viewing it as along overdue initiative for co-ordinating and stimulating research within the NHS” (p403). 2.2 Wewarmly congratulate Professor Michael Peckham on the success of the NHS R&D Strategy so far. A great deal has been achieved, in just four years, towards meeting the need which this Committee identified in 1988 for the NHS to engage actively with the research community. Likewise we congratulate the first generation of RDRDs, who have succeeded in making the Strategy a reality at “field” level; and we commend the personal commitment of the Secretary of State for Health, who has backed the Strategy with political will and real shifts of resources. Of all the NHS reforms since 1990, the R&D Strategy is certainly the one least widely known; but, among those who are aware of it, it is, we suspect, the one most unequivocally welcomed. 2.3 Inthe course of this enquiry, we have received comments on the Strategy from witnesses across the whole range of health services, from NHS management to research in all its forms. These comments are set out in detail in Appendix 6. They include criticisms and words of warning. Not one, however, is outrightly hostile to the Strategy; not one suggests that it is consuming too large a share of NHS resources; and such criticisms and cautions as we have received are almost all, we believe, offered in a constructive spirit. It is in that spirit that we offer the following recommendations.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32219337_0001_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
