Access to IVF improves but not in West Yorkshire
26 June, 2009
Access to IVF for infertile couples has improved over recent years. Infertility Network UK has been working with the Department of Health to carry out research into overall progress made by local health services in fully implementing NICE recommendations. A recent survey showed that 27 per cent of trusts offer the full three cycles of NHS-funded IVF. Although this is a significant improvement from the five per cent of primary care trusts which were meeting this target in 2007, there is ’still a long way to go’ says INUK Chair Lewis-Jones.
New guidelines aimed at improving access to fertility treatment were welcomed by the UK’s new Public Health Minister, Gillian Merron, last week. The recommendations, entitled ‘Commissioning Aid for regulated fertility services’, and compiled by the Expert Group on Commissioning NHS Infertility Provision and Department of Health (DH), will help commissioners of fertility services to deliver the full three cycles of National Health Service (NHS) funded IVF recommended in the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guideline issued in 2004.
In a keynote speech made at a conference in London to highlight the launch of the new guidelines, Merron emphasised the need for three full cycles of IVF in order to gain patient acceptance of single embryo transfer, a measure aimed at reducing the incidence of multiple births for the safety of mother and baby. Hopefully her enthuasism will encourage Commissioners in Yorkshire to take up the NICE guidelines and improve access for IVF.
