NIAC Welcomes Plan To Reduce Multiple Births But Calls For Improved Access To NHS Funded Treatment, UK

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 05 Dec 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Plans for a national strategy to reduce the number of multiple births from fertility treatment must be accompanied by fair and equitable access to NHS funded treatment, says the National Infertility Awareness Campaign (NIAC).

Responding to an announcement made by the Human Fertilisation Embryology Authority (HFEA), NIAC welcomed the plans as a means of reducing the risks to mother and child associated with multiple births, including the possibility of pre-eclampsia, premature births and low birth weight, and cerebral palsy.

The plans follow a recent public consultation carried out by the HFEA, which called for views on the introduction of single embryo transfer (SET) for appropriate patients to reduce the number of multiple births after infertility treatment.

NIAC would support a move towards SET but calls for it be accompanied by full implementation of the NICE clinical guideline on infertility, which recommends funding three full cycles of IVF, where a full cycle includes frozen embryo transfers.

Despite the publication of the guideline in 2004 and the Government's call for a least one full cycle of IVF to be funded by April 2005 as a first step towards its implementation, there continues to be considerable variation in access to treatment around the country.

The number of cycles funded, the inclusion of frozen embryo transfers and the range of access criteria applied to patients seeking treatment vary across Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and there is still little progress towards full implementation of the guideline.

Commenting on today's announcement, Clare Brown, Chair of NIAC, said,

"It is much more likely that patients will accept a move to SET if they have access to the three full cycles of IVF recommended by NICE. If a PCT is only funding one cycle, without frozen embryo transfers, it is understandable that patients may be unwilling to accept a move that may reduce the chances of that one cycle being successful.

"For this reason, we welcomed the announcement made by the Interim Chair of the HFEA in his speech at the British Fertility Conference today that he had written to the Public Health Minister, Rt. Hon Dawn Primarolo MP to enlist her help in ensuring that PCTs understand the connection between access to IVF and the costs of treating multiple births when making funding decisions."

The Department of Health is currently funding a project with Infertility Network UK, a member of NIAC, to help improve access to infertility treatment by encouraging implementation of the NICE guideline.

As part of this project, the Minister wrote to the NHS in July to clarify NICE's definition of a full cycle, which includes frozen embryo transfers, and to call for PCTs to move towards providing the three full cycles recommended by NICE. The Department of Health will also begin monitoring IVF provision across the country.

Notes:

1. Speech by Interim Chair of the HFEA to the British Fertility Conference, 4th December 2007: click here.

2. Letter from the Department of Health to the NHS, 31st July 2007: click here.

3. NIAC campaigns for equal access for those with an established clinical need to a full range of services for the investigation and treatment of infertility on the NHS. It is funded through equal grants from Ferring Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Organon Laboratories Ltd, and Merck Serono Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Its activities are directed by the NIAC Committee, on which non-commercial interests enjoy a significant majority. For further information, please visit http://www.infertilitynetworkuk.com/niac.php, or click on the NIAC section on the front page of the Infertility Network UK website http://www.infertilitynetworkuk.com.

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