Oxfordshire couples fight for IVF treatment (From Oxford Mail)

Oxfordshire couples fight for IVF treatment

6:10am Saturday 18th April 2009

Print
Email
Share
Comments(56)

OXFORDSHIRE couples seeking IVF fertility treatment have called on health officials to end to what they see as age discrimination over funding.

Three weeks ago Richard Mackenzie, from Witney, started a petition calling for Oxfordshire NHS Primary Care Trust to rethink its policy, which he says means couples can be deemed too young or too old to be eligible for NHS-funded IVF treatment, while people living in other PCT areas can get treatment.

So far, 203 people have signed the petition and yesterday Mr Mackenzie and a group of women who have been denied treatment by the NHS handed over the petition to the PCT.

Mr Mackenzie, 29, and his 26-year-old partner have been trying for six years to have a baby and have been told the only chance they have of conceiving is through IVF treatment.

But the PCT says it will not pay for the treatment, which costs an average of £3,000 per cycle, because the couple are too young. Private treatment costs about £10,000 per cycle.

Despite guidance issued in 2004 by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence stating that treatment should be given free of charge to couples in which the woman is aged between 23 and 39, Oxfordshire PCT will only pay for IVF for couples aged between 35 and 38.

Mr Mackenzie said: “It’s age discrimination. Having a child is a right, not a privilege.

“We have been told by our clinician that at the moment our chances of IVF treatment working are about 50 per cent.

“If we wait until my partner is 35, our fertility drops to 23.6 per cent.

“The ironic thing is if we were to live in Coventry, we would be given the treatment for free at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.”

Coventry PCT funds treatment for women aged between 23 and 40, while Swindon PCT funds treatment for couples aged between 30 and 39.

Oxfordshire is part of the NHS South Central Strategic Health Authority area, which includes Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes PCTs.

The PCT refused to say how many couples were waiting for IVF in Oxfordshire and said the way it funded treatment was being reviewed as part of a consultation to introduce a single policy across the South Central region.

A spokesman said it was also considering lowering the age bracket for treatment to 30 to 34 and added: “There are currently two different policies in NHS South Central, which were inherited from the predecessor organisations.

“We want to ensure everyone living in the area has the same access to services.

“The petition will be taken into account during the decision-making about assisted conception policy.”

Mr Mackenzie said: “We aren’t asking for extra funding, all we’re asking for is to have the funding we will be entitled to anyway, earlier, when it’s more likely to be successful.”

He is hoping to raise the issue at next month’s meeting of the Oxfordshire joint health overview and scrutiny committee, at Oxford Town Hall on Thursday, May 14.

To sign the petition, go to gopetition.co.uk/online/26607.html

WHAT IS IVF?

In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a medical procedure to help some infertile couples.

A woman’s ovaries are stimulated with hormone treatment to produce multiple eggs.

The eggs are then fertilised with her partner’s sperm in a laboratory.

This process produces several fertilised embryos, some of which are placed in the woman’s womb and the others are frozen for possible use, if further treatment cycles are needed.

To qualify for IVF treatment one, or both, of the couple must have been diagnosed with a fertility problem and must have been infertile for at least three years.

Couples who already have a naturally-conceived child do not qualify and if a woman has a Body Mass Index of below 19 or above 29.9 she will not be eligible.

Only non-smoking couples are accepted on the IVF treatment waiting list.

Print
Email
Share
Comments(56)

Your Say YourOxford

someguyfromhereandthere, says...
6:34am Sat 18 Apr 09

It is about time that we Oxfordshire residents had a fair health service. We pay the same in tax as the rest of the country, but seem to be discriminated against for living in our county.

In recent weeks I have read in the Oxford Mail about patients trying to get life extending cancer drugs and gender reassignment only to be refused by the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust. Now they are discriminating on young couples too that want to start a family. And the biggest insult is that in all cases, if these Oxfordshire patients lived in other certain PCT areas that they WOULD be funded and treated by the NHS. This is a local and national scandal. And every Oxonian should fight against it.

This is disgraceful and I hope that the right people at the top of Oxfordshire PCT will be held fully accountantable for the devastation that their discriminative policies have caused.

My sympathies go to all patients that are suffering as a result of our poorly run PCT.