Cardiff Uni heart disease research cut 'bizarre'

Plans to cut 63 medical academics at Wales' biggest medical school have been branded "absurd".

Senior academics said proposals put forward by Cardiff University School of Medicine could make it more difficult to recruit and retain high calibre doctors in Wales.

The university's dean denied claims that patients and the NHS will suffer.

Prof John Bligh said cutting areas of research will strengthen it and keep it "ahead of competition".

But Prof Craig Currie, from the population medicine department, said it was "bizarre" some research areas like cardiology were facing cuts when heart disease was such a killer in Wales.

He heads a research company and is employed by the university one day a week, but his post is one of 63 which could go.