NHS stops IVF in county where it was conceived
WOMEN will no longer be offered free IVF in the county where it was pioneered four decades ago.
The controversial decision will save Cambridgeshire and Peterborough health trust £700,000 a year.
at least six other trusts have already scrapped the free fertility treatment despite NHS guidelines stating that couples should be offered three courses.
Doctors described the move which takes immediate effect as ‘ devastating’ while charities branded it an ‘absolute disgrace’.
The decision by managers came almost 40 years after the birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in July 1978.
She was conceived through a technique developed by scientist Robert edwards and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe at the Bourne Hall laboratory in Bourne, Cambridgeshire.
Managers at the health trust, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group, said the NHS funding was ‘desperate.’ The CCG has been ordered to save £46.5million this financial year and is having to restrict low priority procedures.
a course or cycle of IVF costs the NHS up to £4,000 depending on the level of drugs needed to help a woman produce eggs.
The watchdog Nice recommends that couples should be offered at least three IVF cycles on the NHS to maximise their chances. But only about 35 CCGs provide this, equivalent to one in six.
The six trusts which have already stopped funding IVF are South Norfolk, North east essex, Mid essex, Croydon, Basildon and Herts valleys.
Consultant embryologist Stephen Harbottle, of Cambridge University Hospitals Trust, said: ‘NHS care should be available equitably to everyone. even within the eastern region, care is still available but the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will not have access to it. People see IVF treatment as non-essential care but the effect of withdrawing it can be devastating for their mental health, their relationships and financially.’
Sarah Norcross, co-chairman of the charity Fertility Fairness said: ‘This is terrible news for patients and for NHS fertility services in england and is an absolute disgrace for the country that pioneered IVF nearly 40 years ago; prompt access to IVF is crucial for patients to have the best chance of success.
‘Denying access to NHS-funded IVF is associated with health risks and economic consequences.’ She said patients forced to pay often go abroad for treatment with multiple embryo transfer.
This is more likely to lead to the birth of twins or triplets, which increases the risks for mothers and babies with associated high healthcare costs, added Miss Norcross.
More than 2,300 people have signed an online petition urging the CCG to reverse its decision although the ban is expected to remain until april 2019.
CCG chairman Dr Gary Howsam said the suspension of fertility services was ‘financially necessary’ and ‘one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to take’.
He added: ‘There’s a recognition that the NHS funding situation is desperate in our region. The CCG has finite resources to fund a whole range of services and treatments.
‘we need to save £46.5million this financial year and so we have had to review all areas of our spending and to make some difficult decisions.’
‘This is terrible for patients’