Cambridge and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group to review IVF funding cuts

Cambridge – home of IVF

Cambridge is the home of IVF. It is here that the pioneers Steptoe, Edwards and Purdy established Bourn Hall as the world’s first IVF clinic in 1980. It was always their intention that the treatment should be freely available to whoever required it. Unfortunately in those early days the NHS was unwilling to support IVF treatment so they  had to set up their own clinic and gained funding from supporters.

However, very soon Bourn Hall proved that IVF was repeatable and successful and the NHS agreed to fund patients to have treatment here.

In 2016, East and North Herts CCG negotiated a competitive deal with its five IVF suppliers on behalf of the twelve CCGs that serve Herts, Cambs, Beds, Norfolk and Suffolk. Of these CCGs only Cambs and Herts Valley provide no funding for IVF treatment following their decision in 2017.

It is estimated that only about 100 couples a year in Cambridgeshire meet the NHS criteria for IVF, so removing funding will have had a negligible impact on the CCG finances, which has a £1.15bn budget – one of the largest in the country. The financial data presented to the commissioners during the public consultation in 2017 about the amount of saving possible was challenged by a number of parties and subsequently the CCG agreed it was flawed.

IVF treatment is now only available to those who can afford it

Bourn Hall has always treated NHS patients and for many years was a partner to Addenbrooke’s, providing the hospital’s specialist fertility treatment. Bourn Hall has won the NHS tender processes since 2009 to be the only NHS approved IVF provider for patients in the East of England for the last ten years.

In 2011 Addenbrooke’s Hospital opened its own IVF clinic, Cambridge IVF, which offers a service to private patients that meet its criteria and can pay its fees. It is often not understood that, although the Cambridge IVF facility is NHS funded and staffed by NHS employees, it has never performed a sufficient number of cycles or achieved the success rates required to meet the commissioning criteria to provide NHS funded IVF for the people of Cambridgeshire.

Three months’ wait for NHS fertility testing

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust says that over 50 per cent of those on its waiting list for NHS fertility testing have been waiting more than three months for their first appointment.

Dr Thanos Papathanasiou, Regional Lead Consultant at Bourn Hall, is concerned that Cambridgeshire residents are not getting the advice they need.

He says: “We are concerned that by removing IVF as an NHS treatment option, patients in Cambridgeshire may now be less likely to have their infertility fully investigated. This means that people who could benefit from other types of treatment such as medication or specialist fertility advice may not be receiving that support through the NHS. For example, we have been told that fifty per cent of the people referred for fertility testing on the NHS have been waiting more than three months for their first appointment. Fertility declines with age so every month is precious.

“There is now an opportunity to review the way that the fertility service is delivered and to suggest improvements that would offer better outcomes to all patients by creating efficiencies rather than cutting funding.”