Final Report > Chapter 5: Management in Bristol > Relationship between the University of Bristol Medical School and the UBH/T
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Relationship between the University of Bristol Medical School and the UBH/T
28 There seems to have been an extremely close relationship between the University and the UBH/T throughout the period of our Terms of Reference. Like other medical schools, all senior NHS clinical staff held honorary posts in the University as professors, senior lecturers or clinical teachers. Conversely, all clinical staff in the University had formal honorary contracts with the DHA, which, after 1991, were then transferred to the UBHT. There were numerous standing and ad hoc committees with representation both from the University and the UBH/T. [32] Mr Wisheart told the Inquiry that there were many common responsibilities shared between the Faculty of Medicine and the Trust and that a number of committees and groups sought to encourage and promote a high degree of co-operation between the two. [33]
29 However, there was also clearly some tension between the aspirations of the University and the UBH/T. In the case of appointing staff, Dr Roylance told the Inquiry:
`The University always took the view that they wished to appoint the best applicant and were uneasy about specifying too narrowly the specialty of the potential professor.' [34]
30 Dr Roylance explained that this could result in a professor in one specialty being replaced by the appointment of a professor in a different specialty, notwithstanding the hospital's need to continue to provide a service which might not fall within the new professor's specialty.
31 Mr Stephen Boardman, Director of Corporate Development at the UBHT 1991-1992, saw `enormous strengths' in having a medical school alongside the hospitals because of the tendency to attract `the top people' in the field. [35]
32 However, he also pointed out that: `there are times when the core business, the core function of the hospital or the health service, has to be to deliver services which meet the local needs of the local population.' [36] Clearly, there were times when the needs of the University and of the NHS hospitals were in conflict.
33 So far as cardiac surgery was concerned, however, there was not a close relationship between the Department of Cardiac Surgery and the University prior to about 1990. [37] Mr Dhasmana put the date as later, saying: `Up to 1992 there was no direct administrative or managerial connection with the University. ... The Academic Department of Cardiac Surgery was established in October 1992, after which relationships became closer.' [38]
34 The Bristol Heart Institute, a collection of a number of academic departments of which cardiac surgery was one, was established in 1995 as a new organisation by Professor Angelini.
35 Mrs Ferris suggested that difficult discussions took place about whether or not the Institute was valuable to, or detracted from, the Directorate of Cardiac Services. She said that there was concern among some surgeons that the Institute would take over the Cardiac Services Directorate and that Professor Angelini would be in charge of both the academic department of cardiac surgery and the clinical service. [39] The consequence would be, it was feared, that the emphasis of the Directorate would lean more to research and academic concerns than to the needs of the NHS.
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Footnotes
[32] Dr Roylance gives a full account in his statement WIT 0108 0013
[37] WIT 0096 0038 Mr Hutter
[38] WIT 0084 0046 Mr Dhasmana