Patients facing postcode lottery for IVF treatment

Nearly 90 per cent of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) fail to offer women the recommended three cycles of IVF treatment, new figures show.

Of the 208 CCGs in England, only 24 meet the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE’s) guidelines and seven offer no treatment at all.

Campaign group Fertility Fairness has urged the government to intervene. Its figures are based on Freedom of Information requests sent to CCGs across England, all of which replied.

NICE’s guidelines, issued in 2004, state that women under 40 who have failed to get pregnant after two years of trying should be offered three full cycles of IVF on the NHS. However, the recommendations are not compulsory and it is up to local NHS providers to decide what to offer.

Fertility Fairness has found the number of CCGs meeting the guidelines has decreased - between 2013 and 2017 the number dropped from 24 per cent to 12 per cent.

It also found that 50 offered two cycles, 127 offered one and seven did not offer IVF treatment on the NHS at all.

Sarah Norcross, Fertility Fairness, said it was time for the government to ‘grasp this nettle and to actually take action’.

Norcross said: “We've heard lots of comforting words from them over the years; that they're going to do something, that this is a disgrace and supportive statements, but talk is cheap and now they have to do something.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said CCGs have been advised to meet NICE’s guidelines, saying: “The NHS should provide access to fertility services, including IVF, for all patients that meet the criteria.”