We are delighted to share that our first clinic has resumed embryo transfers for patients who had their treatment paused.
Our Cambridge clinic began frozen embryo transfers on Tuesday 16 June 2020. Frozen embryo transfers are scheduled to begin at our Norwich clinic week commencing 22 June and at Wickford week commencing 6 July. Patients who had to freeze embryos due to the shutdown and patients whose FET was booked and had to be cancelled have been prioritised.
Plans for resuming treatment
From 29 June, we will restart egg collections at our Cambridge clinic. This will be followed by Norwich from 13 July and Wickford from 27 July. As well as those of you who had treatments suspended due to the pandemic, we will prioritise female patients aged 40 and above and women with low ovarian reserve.
We will continue to provide rapid treatment for emergency fertility preservation e.g. cancer patients before chemotherapy.
If you are an existing Bourn Hall patient but did not have your treatment cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus, and would like to discuss booking a further treatment cycle, please email the nurses on [email protected]. Once we have planned the prioritised cycles (as above), we will then be able to look at scheduling your treatment as soon as we have the capacity to do so.
If you were being seen as an NHS funded Level 2 patient, or were waiting for a referral to one of our clinics, several of the CCGs have now permitted the resumption of this service. Please email any queries you may have to [email protected].
It is important to note that whilst we have resumed treatments, we will not be operating with normal capacity due to the safety measures we have put in place. This means that we will be doing our best to get you back in our clinics as soon as possible and will be in contact with you all individually to start your treatment again, if we have not done so already.
Safety measures
The safety measures being introduced to keep all patients and staff as safe as possible are as follows:
- Our staff will wear appropriate PPE whilst working in our clinics
- Measures are in place to reduce footfall in our clinics by limiting the amount of patients attending the clinic at any one time and reducing the number of visits to the clinic
- Hand hygiene stations and Covid-19 safety signs have been installed in all our clinics
- Information will be provided to patients and staff about social distancing and hygiene measures
- Patients will be required to complete self assessment and health declaration questionnaires prior to starting their treatment
- Patients will be required to take a Covid-19 test prior to their treatment. Further information about when to take your test can be found in our FAQs here
- Patients are required to wear a mask when inside the clinic. These will be provided upon arrival
- Only the patient receiving treatment will be permitted to enter the clinic. We would politely ask that partners or family members who accompany you wait in the car park
Treatment for new patients
We are also beginning to plan treatments for new patients as soon as we possibly can and can help you be treatment ready with secure virtual consultations with one of our fertility specialist doctors.
You can have your consultation now and get a head start on your treatment by having a personalised treatment plan in place and starting the processes that need to be completed before commencing your treatment. This means you will be ready to start your treatment at the soonest opportunity. To organise this, please contact our enquiry team on [email protected].
More information
Further updates will be posted on this page of our website and on our Covid-19 FAQs page. Please also make sure you are following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for updates.
Additional information, including some questions and answers for patients, can be found on the HFEA website.
Thank you for your understanding and your patience during this challenging time. We will continue to support you and update you as we move forwards in this journey together.
