NEW YEAR... NEW HOPE FOR IVF COUPLES
Bid to end NHS postcode lottery & give all would-be parents access to treatment
CHILDLESS couples have been given hope the postcode lottery for free IVF will end this year.
MPs are set to consider a law to make access to treatment fairer.
Emma Edey, 39, denied IVF, said: “I am praying it goes through quickly.”
CAMPAIGNERS have branded it a disgrace that the IVF postcode lottery means many would-be parents have to pay for the treatment.
Only three local health authorities in England offer childless couples the recommended three cycles of IVF, while many provide only one or none at all.
But there is hope, as Labour MP Steve McCabe is pushing through legislation to bring the injustice to an end.
Mr McCabe believes his private members’ bill, set for its second reading in Parliament on January 25, could be passed into law by next Christmas.
He said: “Infertility is a medical condition and it is time we started treating it like one. It is simply unfair that access to IVF is down to where you live and not your medical need.”
The Birmingham Selly Oak MP’s bill aims to get fairer access to treatment for any childless couple and would set a minimum number of IVF cycles.
He said it had cross-party support and added: “I will be doing everything in my power to make sure the postcode lottery for IVF is brought to an end.”
Government is under pressure to act after the Fertility Network charity got 100,000 to sign an online petition in just 12 weeks. Chief executive Aileen
Feeney said: “Childlessness affects one in six couples. That’s someone in every street. If you can’t get free treatment on the NHS and currently that depends completely on where you live, then only those wealthy enough to pay for IVF privately can hope to have a child. That’s disgraceful.”
Aileen spent two weeks last summer cycling 1,000 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats, raising £3,300 for her charity’s campaign. She will deliver the petition to Prime Minister Theresa May.
Health watchdog the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence recommends any woman under 40 should be given three full cycles of IVF, or one full cycle for those aged 40 to 42. Women who have three cycles increase their chances of having a baby to better than 50%.
But just three of 195 clinical commissioning groups in England offer three cycles – all in Greater Manchester. Seven offer none.
Some break NICE guidelines by setting their own access rules – including reducing the age limit.
Yet in Scotland any woman under 40 can have three full IVF cycles.
In Wales women are entitled to two and in Northern Ireland those under 40 get one partial cycle of IVF.
Private IVF can cost £5,000 a time for each round of treatment.
The Department of Health said last night: “While provision of NHS infertility treatment is decided by clinical commissioning groups, we are clear blanket restrictions on treatment are unacceptable.”