More childless couples offered test tube baby treatment hope

For the first time patients across the region will be offered a minimum of one cycle of IVF under a single set of eligibility criteria for treatment.

The move from July 1 will mean improved care in parts of the region where funding has been severely restricted, while tough restrictions excluding vast numbers of patients will be dropped.

But despite the changes, major disparities will remain. Patients in West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Sheffield and North Lincolnshire will access one full cycle of IVF, those in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and the East Riding will get two – while those in Hull and North East Lincolnshire will get three.

And significant numbers will still miss out because they are too old, overweight or have children from previous relationships.

Latest figures show around 1,100 babies are born each year in Yorkshire after IVF treatment. Some 3,000 couples accessed IVF in 2008 but most paid for it themselves, only 820 being known to be NHS funded.

Health chiefs say they do not know how many will seek treatment but as many as 1,500 couples could be eligible for NHS care across the region each year.

In 2008, only six were NHS funded in North Lincolnshire compared with 100 from Doncaster, 102 from Wakefield and 155 from Leeds.

In North Yorkshire, where only women in the six months before their 40th birthday could routinely access NHS care, 16 had publicly funded treatment in 2008 despite estimates that more than 200 might be eligible. Health chiefs in the county yesterday said they had set aside half a million pounds over the next nine months to pay for the new approach.

The chairman of the National Infertility Awareness Campaign and chief executive of patient group Infertility Network UK, Clare Lewis-Jones, said more patients would be able to access treatment but further improvements were needed "sooner rather than later, particularly as time is of the essence when treating patients for infertility".

She added: "Standardising the access criteria across the region is a positive step, particularly for those patients who faced extremely restrictive age criteria and have until now only been able to access one cycle of treatment if the female was aged 39-and-a-half years," she said.

"However, the actual number of cycles patients are able to access will still depend on where they live."

Leading fertility specialist Prof Adam Balen, of Seacroft Hospital in Leeds, said the city's unit was capable of dealing with a significant increase in demand for NHS care, particularly from North Yorkshire.

"We are delighted this has been put on the table," he said. "Funding one cycle is better than nothing although it still falls short of the national recommendation for three."

David Cockayne, of NHS North Yorkshire and York, said the new policy established minimum standards for patients.

"This is a major step forward as it will allow more couples in North Yorkshire to see if they could benefit from fertility treatments such as IVF," he said.

In 2004, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) recommended infertile couples should be offered up to three IVF cycles.

A spokesman for the NHS Yorkshire and the Humber Specialised Commissioning Group said the funding of one full cycle of treatment also included the transfer of all suitable frozen embryos.

He said: "The policy was developed in response to concerns regarding the postcode lottery in accessing treatment, particularly in relation to which patients were entitled to treatment.

"Those primary care trusts (PCTs) who already fund more than one full cycle of treatment will continue to do so, as moving to a single regional position on the number of cycles to be funded could have meant some PCTs moving backwards from their current position, which is not in line with our stated strategic aim of moving towards full implementation of the Nice guideline."

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