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IVF on the NHS: Labour MP demands all women given fair and equal access

Posted on 18/04/2018 by

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Access to IVF treatment on the NHS varies considerably depending on where in the UK you live. 

Infertility should be treated like any other illness with everyone given equal access on the NHS, according to a Labour MP who will introduce a bill in Parliament on Wednesday calling for an end to the IVF postcode lottery across the UK. Steve McCabe, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, described the rationing of IVF treatment, which means some women can access fertility treatment on the health service worth up to £20,000 and others none at all, as “totally unfair and arbitrary”. 

Fertility problems are estimated to affect around one in six seven couples in the UK – approximately 3.5 million people.  National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines state that women under 40 who have failed to get pregnant after two years of trying should be offered three full cycles of IVF on the NHS. However, the recommendations are not binding and it is up to local NHS providers – clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) – to decide what to offer. 

As just one full cycle of IVF treatment costs around £7,000 many CCGs are deciding to restrict fertility treatment, or cut it altogether. A 2017 audit of England’s 208 CCGs by Fertility Fairness shows only 12 per cent now offer three full cycles – known as “gold standard” areas – a figure which has halved since 2013. Almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of CCGs offer just one cycle while 24 per cent provide two. 

Just over three per cent offer no treatment at all. Scotland now offers three cycles to new referrals, up from two last year, Wales two and Northern Ireland just one. Recommendations As health is devolved, Mr McCabe’s Bill will call for the equalisation of NHS fertility services across England in line with NICE guidelines, as well as the introduction of a national benchmark price to end the wide price disparity in IVF costs, which range from less than £4,000 to more than £8,000 per cycle. 

Research carried out by Opinium earlier this year found the average market price for a single cycle of IVF is £3,348. The highest UK price was £4,195 and the lowest £2,650. Would-be parents face additional charges, however, for registration fees, sedation and blood tests, as well as the drugs needed for the procedure. 

These costs vary between clinics from £655 to £2,335, according to the research. “Access to fertility treatment should be dependent on your medical need – and not your postcode and pay packet. The UK pioneered IVF 40 years ago but that achievement literally means nothing if only those who can afford to pay for fertility treatment benefit from it.” Aileen Feeney, Chief Executive, Fertility Network UK Mr McCabe said: “Infertility is an illness and it’s time we started treating it like one. My 10 Minute Rule Bill will ensure that fair and equal access to IVF is provided across the country, we currently have a totally random postcode lottery system and an unfair eligibility criteria which we wouldn’t accept with other illnesses. 

The World Health Organisation recognises infertility as an illness, so why isn’t the NHS treating patients who suffer from it as they would if someone has diabetes or epilepsy? “It can’t be right that IVF treatment is being rationed on the NHS. How did the government reach the decision to give carte blanche for CCG’s to behave like this and how is it acceptable for NICE guidelines to be followed in one part of the country but not in Birmingham?” Awareness Emma Astley, from Hyde in Greater Manchester, who gave birth to her son, Isaac, after the third NHS-funded IVF cycle, backed the Bill. She told i: “Infertility is 100 per cent an illness. The reproductive system is the same as other functioning parts of our body. 

There’s a big fertility community out there and I watch women and men grieve for the child they may never have, get into debt to try and achieve success, or get ripped off by private fertility clinics. There is a lack of awareness and to much ignorance around infertility which is devastating because no one knows what we go through unless they have been there.” Aileen Feeney, chief executive of Fertility Network UK said the charity “wholeheartedly supports” the Bill. “England’s NHS fertility services are being decimated: in the last 16 months, more than 1 in 10 of England’s CCGs have cut or removed NHS IVF and a further 1 in 10 are currently consulting on doing so. It is a national disgrace,” she said. “Access to fertility treatment should be dependent on your medical need – and not your postcode and pay packet. 

The UK pioneered IVF 40 years ago but that achievement literally means nothing if only those who can afford to pay for fertility treatment benefit from it.” Professor Lesley Regan, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which is also backing the Bill, said: “A national commissioning policy is needed to remove the current variation in IVF funding around the country and increase the uptake of single embryo transfer to improve maternal, neonatal and child health. This will also ensure significant financial savings nationally by reducing multiple pregnancies after IVF treatment.”

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/health/ivf-nhs-treatment-give-all-women-fair-access-labour-mp/

Source: iNews