Free IVF treatment scrapped in county where it all began – Times & Star

Free fertility treatment for women struggling to conceive will not be available on the NHS in the very county where IVF was pioneered.

Funding for specialist in vitro fertilisation (IVF) services was scrapped by health bosses in the Cambridge and Peterborough area on Wednesday, and provision was suspended with immediate effect.

The money-saving move attracted backlash when the plans were first announced, with more than 2,200 people signing a petition calling for the proposals to be reconsidered.

But Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said it was a "financially necessary decision".

Dr Gary Howsam, chair and chief clinical officer of the CCG, said: "This was a very difficult decision for the governing body to make and we understand that people will be disappointed.

"The CCG has finite resources to fund a whole range of health services and treatments.

"We need to save 46.5m this financial year, and so we have had to review all areas of our spending and to make some difficult decisions.

"The decision to suspend routinely commissioning specialist fertility services is a financially necessary decision."

He added: "Couples can still be referred on to hospital for further tests to investigate the cause of their infertility. Many causes of infertility can be successfully treated without the need to go on to IVF."

There will be some exceptions to the plans, with access available for cancer patients left infertile by treatment, while couples who have already been referred for IVF services will still receive one cycle as previously promised.

The plans will be reviewed in April 2019.

Government guidelines recommend that women under 40 should be offered three free cycles if they have been trying to conceive for three years.

IVF was pioneered by Robert Edwards andPatrick Steptoe in a laboratory in Cambridge in 1978.

Since then, millions of babies have been born to families who otherwise may have struggled to conceive.

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Free IVF treatment scrapped in county where it all began - Times & Star