Major review ordered into NHS-funded IVF treatment (and that could mean bad news for Stoke-on-Trent couples)
Stoke-on-Trent couples are currently the big winners in the IVF postcode lottery
major consultation is set to be ordered into NHS-funded IVF treatments offered to couples desperate for a child – to end one of the health service’s most controversial postcode lotteries.
All five of Staffordshire’s clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) only offer one cycle of IVF per patient.
And that rises to two cycles for couples living in Stoke-on-Trent.
Now CCG officials want to create an ‘alignment’ policy to make sure assisted conception treatments are the same across all six CCGs.
Newcastle MP Paul Farrelly has consistently protested against North Staffordshire CCG’s IVF policy.
He said: “Fertility treatment is one of a number of areas where Newcastle and the Staffordshire Moorlands have been out of step for a long time now.
“We’ve pressed the CCG for years to end this unfair postcode lottery for constituents needing decent IVF treatment.
“What’s important, though, is that services get levelled up, not down, which is always the danger with the current under-funding of our local NHS.”
Campaign group Fertility Fairness says any cuts to IVF provision in Stoke-on-Trent would ‘devastate the one-in-six couples in the region facing fertility struggles’.
Group co-chairman Aileen Feeney said: “Fertility patients will be very concerned to hear that the CCGs are considering consulting on changes to their IVF policies.
“We hope the consultation does not look at reducing services further. This would be a financially short-sighted measure which would devastate the one-in-six couples in the region facing fertility struggles.
Campaign group Fertility Fairness says any cuts to IVF provision in Stoke-on-Trent would ‘devastate the one-in-six couples in the region facing fertility struggles’.
Group co-chairman Aileen Feeney said: “Fertility patients will be very concerned to hear that the CCGs are considering consulting on changes to their IVF policies.
“We hope the consultation does not look at reducing services further. This would be a financially short-sighted measure which would devastate the one-in-six couples in the region facing fertility struggles.
The CCGs are expected to come up with a preferred option in July before staging their 12-week consultation. It is also expected to consider IVF for single women, same-sex couples and the length of time eggs and sperm are stored and how they’re extracted.
A spokesman for the six CCGs said: “Approval from all six CCGs in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent is required to trigger the review. This process is in progress and, once this is approved, we shall be in a position to develop the plan.”