More hospitals to stop offering IVF on the NHS

WOMEN are being denied fertility treatment as a result of health budget cuts.

NHS bosses are restricting access to IVF, with some considering limiting services to those aged 30 to 35.

Thirteen areas in England have introduced cuts or stopped providing fertility treatment completely since the start of the year. A further eight are consulting on restricting services, according to Figures from Fertility Network UK.

The number of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that offer the recommended three full IVF cycles has dropped by almost half, from 50 in 2013 to 27.

Budget cuts are increasingly rendering IVF a postcode lottery as CCGs defy national guidelines.

NICE, which sets the guidelines, says women under 40 with fertility problems should be offered three cycles of IVF. Those aged 40 to 42 should be offered one cycle in some circumstances.

But CCGs in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire are consulting on restricting treatment to women aged 30 to 35 only. They would be the first to limit services to such a narrow range. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG is consulting on cutting all IVF services except in rare circumstances – such as women who face chemotherapy or other treatments likely to render them infertile.

Professor Simon Fishel, who was part of a team that pioneered IVF in the UK, told the Guardian: ‘What is the point of having NICE guidelines if they are not adhered to? If the country decides it will not fund IVF then fine, that is a decision that affects everyone... but what I cannot abide is the local variation for something like this.’

Croydon has already become the first London borough to stop funding IVF.

Its CCG took the decision in a bid to save £836,000 a year.

In Swindon and most of Cheshire, IVF funding has been cut from three cycles per patient to one.

And in February, the Mail reported on a north- south IVF divide, which means many couples in southern England can have fertility treatment on the NHS only in ‘exceptional circumstances’.

The Department of Health said: ‘Fertility problems can have a serious and lasting impact on families and the NHS should provide access to services, including IVF, for all patients that meet the criteria set out by independent experts at NICE.’ NHS England said: ‘Ultimately these are legally decisions for CCGs, who are under an obligation to balance the various competing demands on the NHS locally while living within the budget Parliament has allocated.’

Dr Gary Howsam, chair of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG, told The Guardian: ‘We are now in the difficult position where we have to evaluate every service we commission.’

A spokesman for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire CCGs told the newspaper: ‘We know how hard it can be for couples who are struggling to conceive and will continue to offer fertility treatment to hundreds of people every year.

‘Clinical evidence shows that treatment between the ages of 3035 offers the highest possible chance of success.’ A cycle of IVF typically costs the NHS £5,000.

In 2013, 49,636 women in the UK had a total of 64,600 cycles.

A study published in 2015 revealed that the cumulative chance of a live birth was 30 per cent for the first cycle, increasing to 45 per cent after two cycles and 54 per cent after three.

Couples had a 65 per cent success rate after six attempts.