A KNUTSFORD fertility expert suggests that striving to improve success rates could tackle the IVF ‘postcode lottery’ in the NHS.

Last week, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) dominated the headlines when it blasted the NHS’s ‘totally unacceptable’ restrictions on fertility treatment for thousands of women in England.

Dr Rafet Gazvani, a consultant in reproductive medicine at The Hewitt Fertility Centre in Knutsford, said that service providers can lessen the pressure on the NHS by striving to improve their own success rates.

He added: “Of course we agree with the stance of NICE that infertility treatment is something that should be made available to everyone who needs it, however we appreciate that resources are limited and commissioners are coming under increasing pressure to stretch what little funding they have across the whole of medicine such as heart disease, cancer treatment and social care.

“The view of The Hewitt Fertility Centre is that this puts the responsibility onto fertility service providers like ourselves to ensure that we are doing everything we possibly can to give patients their very best chance of achieving a pregnancy.”

According to guidance, the NHS should provide 3 full cycles of IVF treatment for women aged under 40 who have failed to get pregnant after 2 years of trying, however, fewer than one in five local NHS funding bodies offer couples in their area the full number of cycles.

More than half – 52 per cent – of clinical commissioning groups only offer one IVF cycle to eligible couples and in some areas people with fertility problems are refused IVF treatment altogether.