Dr Virginia Smith

Over fifty years of institutional development gone in one short spat with Wellcome administrators who probably themselves will have moved on in a few years time. Yes there were obviously some problems, but it was their job to produce a solution. The closure of their main London Centre will affect the Wellcome's image and status in ways that they obviously have not forseen, with many unintended consequences. Some of them have already been posted on these blogs, ie. their international academic reputation, positive commendation from the WHO, their
relationship with their London neighbours, the viability of their Library and Museum, etc etc. This short-term thinking is not serving the Wellcome Trust well. There should be some internal enquiry as to how things got to such a state, and an immediate restart to negotiations with UCL.

But what is potentially even more worrying is the thought that the Wellcome may be using this as an excuse to try to get out of the history of medicine altogether. Is this the case? What is going on here? The more fuss we make the better. Now can we have a world-wide petition?

Dr Virginia Smith,
Centre for Public Health History, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine