NICK STATHAM
HEALTH campaigners claim a public consultation on proposed cuts to fertility treatment is ‘misleading’ and not ‘fit for purpose’.
Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is asking people for their views on reducing IVF cycles for women under 40 from two cycles to one – or even scrapping the procedure altogether.
Bosses say they are facing ‘real financial challenges’ and reducing the number of cycles on offer could save more than £1m over the next five years.
They add that the consultation is ‘critical’ to the decision process and built on information from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
The online consultation says continuing to offer two funded cycles would mean health chiefs needing ‘to consider other areas of healthcare in order to make the required savings’.
But members of Stockport United Against Austerity say that further cuts are already in the pipeline, pointing out the same document states that ‘a number of services’ are being looked at – with IVF treatment being just ‘one of the services identified for review’.
In a leaflet they are distributing to the public the group brands this as ‘misleading’.
Spokesperson Debbie Hind said: “They also say in the consultation that if they don’t reduce IVF from two cycles to one they will have to make cuts elsewhere (but) we know they are going to make cuts elsewhere - this is only the first one.”
Ms Hind adds that the options being put to the public go against guidelines from NICE say that women under 40 should be entitled to three cycles of IVF.
However, Dr Cath Briggs, GP clinical chair of Stockport CCG, said the consultation was based on expert evidence and guidance.
She said: “The IVF Consultation is built upon the guidance from National Institute of Clinical Excellence and evidence from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.”