Retaining NHS fertility services – you can make a difference

Richard Clothier, a fertility patient in Bedfordshire.

There is certainly a trend in England for Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to reduce, and in some cases remove IVF treatment allocations altogether. What is not certain is that each CCG’s consultation has to lead to the intended decision going ahead.

In November 2016, we saw that Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (BCCG) reversed its intended decision to remove the already reduced treatment entitlement. Among the many lobbying activities taking place included pressure applied from Andrew Selous, MP for Southwest Bedfordshire.

Andrew became involved and wrote to BCCG when I asked him to raise the issue over treatment inequality within Bedfordshire, because residents of Luton are entitled to three fresh cycles of treatment, but everywhere else in the county only one cycle. And under BCCG’s plans, removing that one single cycle altogether.

Andrew also wrote to the BCCG Accountable Officer when the voting panel unexpectedly deferred the post-consultation decision, and asked to hear justification. He then kept the pressure up when dates promised for responses passed without reply. In addition to this, he wrote to the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and raised concerns over treatment inequality.

Your MP is elected to represent you and your concerns. At some point you may have confided your feelings about infertility to someone and were shocked at their lack of empathy. This does not mean your MP will be ambivalent or inanimate by you reaching out for help about your concerns.

If you are affected by infertility, I implore you to contact your local MP about the perversion of treatment equality in the UK. If your local CCG is running a consultation, ask your MP to fill out the consultation questionnaire in support of retaining treatment, and more importantly, to write to the CCG asking them to justify their intended decision.

If your area is not threatened by a treatment consultation, ask your MP to support the Parliamentary debate 19th January over the decommissioning of NHS-funded IVF treatment.

We, the people affected, can have an influence over the future of NHS fertility treatment availability. We just need to try and put the infertility stigma to one side and make some noise. This is much easier said than done, but if we don’t do something, CCGs faced with tough decisions are always going to find it easier to withdraw our funding.

I am not saying pressure from your MP will result with treatment retention and a path towards equality, but it can make a difference. After all, everyone who embarks on IVF treatment does so knowing there are no guarantees of success – but we do it anyway.

The people at the Fertility Network UK and Fertility Fairness charities do a truly wonderful job fighting our corner, but we need to help them do this. We simply cannot stay silent.

We need to stick together. Those who shout loudest get heard. Let your MP help us. Apart from anything else, they’re paid to do so. And this trend of treatment inequality simply cannot be allowed to continue.