*No thanks to one billion:* The Red-Green Alliance will not abandon its principle
All other parties voted for the establishment and operation of a national research center in clinical psychiatry at Bispebjerg Hospital.
Region East Denmark, with help from the Lundbeck Foundation, will establish and operate a national research center in clinical psychiatry at Bispebjerg Hospital. It will house 180 researchers and other staff. (Photo: © Sergei Gapon, AFP/Ritzau Scanpix) 29 minutes ago
As the only party in the Preparatory Regional Council of East Denmark, the Red-Green Alliance voted last week against a grant of one billion kroner for the establishment and operation of a national research center in clinical psychiatry.
The money would come from the commercial foundation Lundbeck, which would give the region 100 million kroner per year for ten years.
But even though it is an important area, and large parts of the resources for research already come from private foundations, this is not the way the Red-Green Alliance wants to run our healthcare system and research, says Tormod Olsen, group chair for the Red-Green Alliance in Region East Denmark:
- One billion sounds like a lot for a topic we think is important. But we have had that principle for many years, and sometimes you have to stick to your principles if you want a different future. And we think that for very, very many years it has been a problem that private foundations have gained great influence over how we develop the healthcare system, says Tormod Olsen.
Tormod Olsen, Red-Green Alliance, during an election debate about the new region East Denmark. (Photo: © Thomas Traasdahl, Ritzau Scanpix)
Like all other parties in the Preparatory Regional Council of East Denmark, the Conservatives voted to accept the large sum of money, and therefore the national research center in clinical psychiatry, which will be located at Bispebjerg Hospital, will in all likelihood become a reality.
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> It would have a very severe impact on the research activity that
> was at the hospitals if one could not receive foundation funds
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Impractical to drop private foundations
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Because even though Jacob Rosenberg, regional council member from the Conservatives, thinks the Red-Green Alliance's idea is noble, it is far from realistic.
- They do it based on a principled stance that all research should be financed by public funds. I actually have deep respect for that. I just don't think it's realistic. It has no basis in reality, because then no research would be done at all, believes Jacob Rosenberg.
Jakob Kjellberg, professor in health economics at VIVE, agrees.
The commercial foundations already have a major impact on the research being done. And it is not something you can just change.
- Then either much less research would have to be done. Or else it would have to be compensated quite heavily with public funds. And there is nothing pointing to that happening. It would have a very severe impact on the research activity at the hospitals if one could not receive foundation funds, says Jakob Kjellberg.
Although Tormod Olsen from the Red-Green Alliance agrees that it would not be easy to get commercial foundations out of Danish research, he nevertheless says that in an example like this, other ways could have been found to finance the research center:
- Here it is specifically 100 million kroner per year for 10 years, and that is much less than what is spent in the 10-year plans for psychiatry. So one could have included a research component there and then secured public financing that was controlled by where we, politically and professionally, believe the money would do the most good, believes Tormod Olsen.
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