Cambridgeshire and Peterborough plans to stop NHS IVF

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough clinical commissioning group (CCG) is consulting on cutting NHS IVF completely; it currently offers 1 NHS-funded IVF cycle. One of the key ways to stop this is to register your views with the CCG – and to tell your MP; details of how to contact your MP are on this website at http://fnuk.wpengine.com/for-those-trying-to-become-parents/nhs-funding/campaign-for-equitable-treatment/

Don’t be disheartened, patient power can make a difference: at the start of the year, plans to cuts services elsewhere in the country were stopped after large numbers of the public spoke out against this.

You can tell the CCG what you think about these plans in a number of ways: one, by filling in the online questionnaire at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6GFWQ3W

The additional ways to make your views known are:

• Fill in a paper copy of the questionnaire found on page 13 of this consultation document and send it FREEPOST to Freepost Plus RSCR-GSGK-XSHK, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG, Lockton House, Clarendon Road, Cambridge CB2 8FH. You do not need a stamp.
• Telephone the Communications and Engagement Team on 01223 725304.
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  Or you can attend one of the public meetings detailed below and tell the CCG what you think:

  • Thursday 11 May 2017: 6-7pm at The Boat House Business Centre, 1 Harbour Square, Wisbech PE13 3BH
  • Monday 15 May 2017: 2-3pm and 6-7pm at The Fleet, Fleet Way, Peterborough PE2 8DL
  • Monday 22 May 2017: 12.30-1.30pm at Central Library, 7 Lion Yard, Cambridge CB2 3QD
  • Thursday 25 May 2017: 6-7pm at The Maltings, Ship Lane, Ely CB7 4BB
  • Wednesday 7 June 2017: 6-7pm at The Meadows Community Centre, 1 St Catharine’s Rd, Cambridge CB4 3XJ
  • Thursday 8 June 2017: 6-7pm at Huntingdon Library, Princes Street, Huntingdon, PE29 3PA

  The CCG will also attend other meetings organised by groups who are interested in these proposed changes.  If you would like the CCG to attend your meeting please contact it on the number or email below.

  Phone: 01223 725304

  Email: capccg.contact@nhs.net

  The consultation runs from 13 March 2017, until 5pm on 12 June 2017.

The proposed new policy would still enable patients to be referred from their GP to their local hospital for investigation into their fertility problems. However, once a patient had completed these investigations, under the proposed policy patients requiring IVF treatments would not then be referred from the local hospital to the specialist fertility services for treatments funded by the NHS. Fertility preservations for patients undergoing cancer treatment and sperm washing for men with a chronic viral infection will still be offered.

The consultation to remove NHS IVF comes just months after the CCG cut the number of IVF cycles it offer from 2 to 1.