‘Patchy’ service for fertility treatment
PEOPLE ARE struggling to get fertility treatments because health bodies in just one in eight regions of England are adhering to official guidance, a new report has found.
The fertility treatment watchdog says there is a “patchy” service following a rise in the number of health bodies which have cut or reduced access to treatments.
Only 12 per cent of local health bodies adhere to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines, which say that in certain circumstances, women under 40 should receive three cycles of IVF on the NHS and those aged 40 to 42 should receive one.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) latest report said the figure stood at 24 per cent in 2013.
The number of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) which have cut the service altogether rose from one per cent in 2013 to three per cent in 2017. A further seven per cent were considering a reduced or removed service.
“The result is a patchy service across England, with neighbouring CCGs in the same region offering differing levels of access to fertility patients,” the authors wrote.
Professor Adam Balen, of the Leeds Centre for Reproductive Medicine, said couples were being denied treatment because of a lack of funding and restrictive eligibility criteria.
He said: “Relative to many other medical interventions, it is quite inexpensive, and it’s a travesty that NHS funding has been cut by so many CCGs over the past few years.
“The funding of IVF is seen to be an easy target. But infertility is a serious medical condition, resulting in huge stress and distress, and is caused itself by a large number of different medical problems.
“IVF is cost effective and has shown to be an economic benefit to society. The bottom line is that you cannot put a price on a baby.”