Make a difference to the postcode lottery

Currently out of 209 CCGs, only 4 follow the NICE guideline in full. A further 31 offer three cycles but with restricted access criteria and at the moment a further 23 CCGs are considering making cuts to their funding.  We are working hard to try to make a difference, but we need your help.

If every single person who reads this would take a few minutes to write or email their MP, asking them to step in and stop these cuts, the Government would be forced to do more.  Nicola Blackwood, Minister for Public Health, said recently: ‘Fertility problems can have a serious and lasting impact on those affected. It is important that the NHS provide access to fertility services for those who need clinical help to start a family. I am very disappointed to learn that access to IVF treatment on the NHS has been reduced in some places and it is unacceptable that some clinical commissioning groups have stopped commissioning it completely.”

We need to capitalise on that support by asking more MPs to raise the issue at Westminster.  We need you to write to your MP asking if they will highlight this issue, ask why CCGs are being allowed to cut funding, and what the Minister is doing about it.  We have secured a back bench debate on 19^th January, so if you get in touch with your MP before that date please also ask them to support it.

Even if you have been able to access NHS funding, you can still support the campaign and make a difference to those who are currently struggling. Ideally, individual emails (or letters) to MPs would be best but a suggested short text you could use is below – copy and personalise as much as you can. You can find contact details for your MP at http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/

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“I would like to know why it is acceptable for the vast majority of England’s clinical commissioning groups to disregard national public health guidance; data from campaign group Fertility Fairness shows 83 per cent of clinical commissioning groups ignore NICE guidance and do not provide three full cycles of NHS fertility treatment. What action is being taken to increase compliance with NICE’s national guidance?

[Personal statements help enormously; if you are happy to, please provide personal details here of your situation and how this affects you physically, emotionally, socially and financially.] 

Please raise questions in Parliament about why the accepted medical intervention for the treatment of infertility is routinely rationed in this way. Please bring this issue to the attention of your colleagues and policy makers in the Department of Health.

I hope that you will take the necessary steps to investigate this appalling inequity in healthcare provision and to protect my local fertility services and those across England and the rest of the UK.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my concerns and I look forward to receiving your reply.

(I hope you will also support the back bench debate on this topic on 19^th January 2017)”

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