Building Work Starts On The Largest IVF Facility In The NHS, UK

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 05 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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A £3.3m plan to reorganise Reproductive Medicine services in Leeds, bringing them together for the first time in a single purpose-designed facility which will improve care for fertility patients, is getting underway.

Building work will begin in the first week in January on the scheme, which will allow the two current fertility services in Leeds to be centralised on the Seacroft Hospital site into one unit. At the moment services are provided in smaller facilities on both the St James's and Leeds General Infirmary sites.

The work will take12 months, with detailed input by doctors, nurses and managers in order to create a more effective and efficient reproductive medicine service for patients.

Two wards at Seacroft Hospital recently vacated by another service are being converted to house the facility, which will have the capacity for a greater number of IVF cycles than were available from the two smaller units.

Professor Adam Balen, Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at the Trust said today: "We are delighted that building work is getting underway on the new Reproductive Medicine Unit at Seacroft Hospital. This is the culmination of many years of planning for the merger of the Clarendon Wing IVF Unit at the LGI and the St James's Hospital IVF Unit.

"This now creates the largest NHS based IVF facility in the UK and brings together a great team of scientists and healthcare professionals who will continue to provide the highest level of care in the full range of fertility treatments.

"We are very excited for the future in this new state-of-the-art facility and what we can offer to the people of Yorkshire and beyond."

Fertility services will continue to be provided at both St James's and Leeds General Infirmary until December 2009, when the centralised unit at Seacroft Hospital is due to open.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals
http://www.leedsth.nhs.uk