Fertility clinic set for closure in the spring

A FERTILITY treatment clinic which has made families dreams come true is to close.

The BMI Winterbourne Hospital fertility suite, which offers private fertility treatment for couples who fail to naturally conceive, will shut in spring 2015 after a decrease in demand left the service unviable.

It is unclear how many jobs will be lost following the closure, with a spokesman saying the hospital was set to enter a consultation about redundancies.

The spokesman added patients currently undergoing a treatment cycle would have them completed.

The Winterbourne Hospital fertility suite has been open since March 1993 after it gained its licence for fertility treatment.

Boasting an impressive success rate of 57 per cent, it was once in the top four most successful fertility suites in the country.

In May 2011, the suite underwent a 50,000 refurbishment, which included the installation of a state-of-the-art embryology laboratory and focused all the facilities into one suite, meaning it could offer a number of new procedures for assisted conception, including IVF (In Vitro Fertlisation), ICSI (Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injecticion), assisted hatching, IUI (Intra Uterine Insemination) and donor sperm treatments.

A spokesman for BMI Healthcare said: With a gradual decrease in demand for fertility services at The Winterbourne Hospital in recent years we have, after detailed consideration, decided that there are not sufficient cases to continue to maintain a high-quality, safe and viable service.

We will shortly be writing to current patients to explain that their treatment cycles will be completed at The Winterbourne before the service closes in three months and we will not be accepting new patients whose treatment cannot be completed within that timescale.

We appreciate that this is a sensitive issue for our patients and we are making appropriate arrangements for their continuing care at other facilities where this is required.

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Fertility clinic set for closure in the spring