Universities and the NHS

I little while back I wrote a little bit about NHS research work.  Basically I was looking at the way in which the NHS gets money for researching things for different organisations, and also pays for research for work to be done. So I got thinking.  What about Welsh Universities?  Surely that should have done some work with the NHS.  It would make sense if they do (Wales has numerous health problems…  Just like the rest of the UK… And world) and would also be a good way to see what the universities are doing.

So I popped off a FoI request for the following questions:

1) Have you worked with any NHS trust to research any health or medical issue since 01/01/2011

2) If the answer to Question is yes, please can you tell me which trust you worked with, what was researched and how much was given to you by the trust OR how much you gave to the trust.

Again I asked this to all the Welsh NHS trusts  about which universities they have worked with (When it is written I will put the link here).  The reasons for the questions is simply because I wanted to know which NHS trust they worked with (If it was Wales only) and how much was spent.

And so are the results:

Name	Trusts	Amount	What Researched
Cardiff University	See Spreadsheet	£13,252,625	See Spreadsheet
University of South Wales	Bristol, Public Health Wales, Cwm Taff, Aneurin Bevan, Cardiff and Vale	£211360.5	See Spreadsheet
Bangor University	Betsi Cadwaladr, Hywel Dda, Cardiff and Vale, Liverpool,	£1,637,640	See Spreadsheet
Aberystwyth University	Hywel Dda	£102,879	COPD, Diabetes
Swansea	See Below	See Below	See Below

I was very grateful to (Nearly) all the universities for their work on this one.  The spreadsheet that they gave show an AMAZING range of things. Cardiff’s has to be the busiest place on the planet!  The sure amount that they have done is STAGGERING.  I really couldn't say everything that they have done as they have done 164 different projects. Which is amazing. Makes me proud.

So why did I leave out Swansea.  Because they refused me. They chose not to answer because of commercial interests.  This goes right back to that point I made ages back about consistency, how two authorities can makes a decision and then give two TOTALLY different answers.

This is interesting because it shows that our universities are working like crazy for us. It shows that we are doing something to improve the health of people.