Postcode lottery fears as medics bid to restrict IVF
TAXPAYER-FUNDED IVF will be limited to women with HIV and cancer patients under plans being considered by one local NHS authority.
Doctors in Richmond, South-West London, want to restrict fertility services to cut costs.
But experts fear the move will cause ‘huge distress’ to couples struggling to have a baby but who cannot afford private treatment, and that it opens up the possibility of a ‘postcode lottery’.
Richmond’s clinical commissioning group (CCG) – the local body which pays for health services – needs to make savings of £13million in the next financial year, and has launched a public consultation on the IVF proposals.
The document states: ‘There is not enough money for us to do everything we would like to for the people of Richmond.
‘We have to prioritise and make difficult decisions to secure the future of local health services for everyone.’
It then asks whether there should be ‘no change’ to IVF services – meaning women aged 39 or under who meet certain other criteria would be eligible for a single ‘cycle’ of IVF – or if fertility treatment should only be funded in ‘limited circumstances’.
‘Access to IVF would be limited to patients who are infertile following cancer treatment, or to prevent transmission of chronic viral infections (such as HIV),’ it explains.
Professor Adam Balen, president of the British Fertility Society, warned: ‘This will cause huge dis- tress for couples. Everybody has the right to start a family.’
He added that fertility treatment was cost-effective and now achieved ‘extremely good success rates’, and that he feared the move would increase the risk of a postcode lottery for IVF.
The cut would only make a modest contribution to the Richmond CCG’s planned savings, as it currently spends around £400,000 a year on fertility treatment.