Infertility rates are the same across the globe, with one in six couples requiring assisted reproduction to become parents. The pain of those suffering from infertility is also the same the world over. Chinese couples are to have greater access to world-class fertility treatment following the announcement of a new collaboration between Bourn Hall China and Zhoushan Maternal and Children’s Health Hospital to establish a new clinic.
Zhoushan Archipelago is known as a Buddhist ‘Paradise on the Sea’ and is already a place of pilgrimage for many Chinese seeking fertility help. The new fertility clinic on the island will provide high quality support for these people and those living in the province.
Bourn Hall Clinic (UK) was established by the pioneers of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and since the birth of the first ‘test-tube’ baby in 1978 over six million babies have been born worldwide following IVF treatment.
The new Zhoushan Clinic is the latest to be established by Bourn Hall China. Its first fertility clinic, opened in Kunming in 2014, has just completed its first full year of operation with success rates equivalent to those achieved in the UK. A second clinic is being established in Chongqing and a third is planned for Hangzhou. A Shanghai clinic with a capacity for 10,000 cycles of IVF per year is also planned.
The agreement is to be signed by Dr Mike Macnamee, CEO of Bourn Hall Limited, on behalf of Bourn Hall China, and Li Chen, Dean of Zhoushan Maternal and Children’s Health Hospital.
Dr Macnamee says: “We are delighted to be working with Zhoushan Maternal and Children’s Health Hospital to offer this new fertility service to their patients.
“By establishing these clinics, Bourn Hall China is making world-class IVF treatment available within China and is building local capacity and skills in IVF and reproductive medicine. The clinicians and embryologists are trained by a Bourn Hall team with over 35 years of experience of IVF.
“The clinics will operate to the same protocols used within one of the most highly regulated health systems in the world, ensuring the highest standards of quality and patient care.”
The Business Breakfast and signing will be in the presence of Jeremy Hunt, UK Secretary of State; Deborah Kobewka, MD of Healthcare UK; Kevin Holland, Minister-Counsellor for Lifescience and Healthcare at the British Embassy China; and Joanna Roper, Acting Director General for Department for International Trade China.
