NHS fertility system in chaos

Plans to reform fertility treatment available on the NHS have resulted in a chaotic system with vast differences in the level of treatment on offer.

Health Secretary John Reid set a deadline of 1 April this year for all eligible women to get one free cycle of IVF treatment. But analysis of the system by a Parliamentary group and fertility watchdogs found:

  • Women in some areas have to wait up to two years for treatment.
  • Some areas which previously offered several cycles of IVF are reducing their provision to one.
  • Wide discrepancies between the criteria to qualify for treatment.

The shake-up was seen as a step towards implementing guidelines issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommending that women should eventually receive three free cycles to give them the best chance of conceiving.

In London some areas were providing up to three free treatments while in other places women were not entitled to any.

Now most Primary Care Trusts,

which pay for treatment for patients, are promising to provide one free treatment while others are continuing to offer more.

But critics say the guidelines are in danger of becoming irrelevant because of the long waiting times in some areas.

Some women are in danger of waiting so long that they will breach the upper age limit of 39 by the time they reach the front of the queue.

There are also differences in the upper age limit for women, policies on treating those who already have children or how long they must have been trying for a child before treatment.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Infertility (APPGI) and National Infertility Awareness Campaign found that:

  • Brent used to offer two and sometimes three free cycles, but has now reduced that to one.
  • Bromley offered all eligible women two cycles, but will now give women under 38 one cycle and women over 38 two.
  • Harrow has a waiting time of anything up to 12 weeks while in neighbouring Barnet women can wait up to two years.
  • Richmond and Twickenham provides three free cycles, but is reviewing its position.
  • Ealing says women must not have had previous fertility treatment whereas City and Hackney will treat those who have had up to three previous attempts.
  • Barnet treats only non-smokers.
  • Islington will treat those who have been infertile for a year, while in Hounslow women must have been infertile for three years.
  • Enfield will treat those in a " longterm" relationship, while Islington stipulates a two-year relationship and Redbridge three years.

APPGI chairman Kevin Barron MP said: "We are still not achieving the equal access to infertility services on the NHS couples deserve."

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