NHS-funded IVF reinstated in Cambridgeshire
People will be able to get IVF on the health service from August.
NHS-funded IVF in Cambridgeshire will be reinstated in August for the first time since 2017.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)’s Governing Body made the decision unanimously on Tuesday (July 6).
Cambridgeshire is currently one of only three CCGs in the country not to offer NHS-funded IVF. Two CCGs that had previously suspended funding for the treatment reinstated it in April 2020.
It follows a call from all seven of the county’s MPs, campaign groups and others, to reinstate funding for the treatment.
NHS funding for the treatment was suspended in Cambridgeshire in September 2017 owing to financial pressures on the CCG, which is responsible for planning and commissioning NHS healthcare services in the area.
The decision was reviewed in 2019 but the treatment was not reinstated at that time.
A CCG report says its financial position “has not improved” since the 2019 review, but that “the growing inequality of provision has strengthened the argument to redress the inequality and reinstate provision of IVF services”.
The CCG report said “the growing inequalities of provision outweigh the relative effect on the CCG’s overall budget”.
In vitro fertilisation is a technique that fertilises an egg outside of the body and returns it to the womb to grow. It was pioneered in Cambridge in 1978.
The world’s first IVF clinic, Bourn Hall, in Bourn, said the treatment is “coming home”.
Dr Mike Macnamee, chief executive of Bourn Hall, said the news will “bring hope to many”.
He said: “All of us at Bourn Hall are delighted by the CCG’s decision and we look forward to welcoming NHS patients from Cambridgeshire back to our clinic.
“For the last four years the Cambridge clinic has been in the very strange position of being able to provide NHS IVF treatment to patients across the East of England – but not to those who live on our doorstep.”
The CCG’s accountable officer, Jan Thomas, thanked “all the individuals that took the time to talk to us”.
She said it was “incredibly helpful and insightful” to speak with individuals and campaign groups who have shared their experiences “of not only not having NHS IVF but actually having that IVF through other sources”.
She said she is “hugely supportive of moving forward with this as a proposal. I think the inequalities argument is incredibly strong. And I think we have to sort the financial situation out for our underlying position, I think there are other ways that we can do this that have less of an impact on inequalities”.
In a statement released after the decision, she said: “We are pleased to have taken the decision to reinstate NHS-funded IVF in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough today.
“We hope that this decision is welcome news for all of those people who find themselves in need of this service, and those who advocated for its reinstatement.”
The current recommendation would see the NHS in Cambridgeshire fund one cycle comprising up to three transfers of embryos including one fresh transfer of embryo, and up to two frozen transfers of embryos, subject to the criteria being finalised in August.
The level of provision being proposed by the CCG now would offer the patient up to three NHS-funded chances of becoming pregnant and “is the most financially viable option given the CCG’s financial position”, the CCG said.
The report says it represents an “enhanced offer, compared to some CCGs, by proposing one cycle of IVF which includes up to three transfers of embryos”. The majority of CCGs offer one cycle of NHS-funded IVF including up to two transfers of embryos, the CCG says.
The CCG’s GP Clinical Lead, Dr Gys Fourie, told the meeting “for three transfers it is around 29 per cent cumulative success rate”.
Governance and audit chair and lay member of the CCG Governing Body, Julian Huppert, said he argued to retain NHS-funded IVF in 2017.
He said the CCG does need to deal with its financial pressures, but said “there are other ways to do that”.
The CCG estimates the treatment will cost it around £900,000 a year, plus around an additional £2.4 million as there are an estimated 445 “built-up” patients from the years the treatment was suspended who are “likely” to seek treatment.
“£1.5 billion is the amount that we spent last year, and this is a relatively small amount. There are other ways we are going to have to engage to save the very large sums that are needed”, he said.
The CCG said it recorded a small in-year financial surplus last year, but that it has a cumulative deficit of £133 million.