Dr Paul Walker, chair of PHA Cymru, the Welsh public health association, drew attention to current inequity in health funding with his recent comments on a report into medical research funding published last week by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.
The report shows how spending on all types of health research by the eleven largest government and charity organisations funding health research in the UK is distributed across different areas of health and disease.
The report found that four diseases attracted two thirds of all funding, including cancer, neurological diseases, infections and cardiovascular diseases, whereas mental health problems attracted only 6% of funding.
Dr Paul Walker said, “The current investment in health research is not entirely as it should be, investment in mental health research in no way reflects the prevalence and distress caused by mental and emotional problems.”
There should be more research into mental illnesses, he said, although not at the expense of research into other health areas. If the big charities will not fund such research then the Government and Medical Research Council must fill the gap.
For a copy of the report
http://www.ukcrc.org/activities/coordinatingresearchfunding/ukhealthresearchanalysis.aspx