ICB proposes reducing NHS fertility treatment despite Women's Health Strategy

The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) has proposed a single policy for access to NHS-funded fertility treatment for the area, that will see access for some residents reduced.

ICBs took over from Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in July 2022, and are now responsible for commissioning of NHS services in different areas in England. The changes to standardise access across the area, which was previously covered by multiple CCGs, were being proposed as the Board claimed it removed discrepancies, but it does so by reducing some access for NHS patients in areas it covers that previously had more. A consultation on the proposed policy is being held to gather the views of residents until 22 March 2023.

'We need a consistent, evidence-based policy across the ICB to replace the various inconsistent polices inherited from the six clinical commissioning groups to remove any suggestion of unwarranted and unfair variation of access across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent' said Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones, chief medical officer for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB.

The ICB is making the proposal now despite changes to NICE guidelines promised in the Women's Health Strategy in July last year to improve NHS-funded access to intrauterine insemination (IUI) for female same-sex couples (see BioNews 1152). These changes are not expected until next year, however.  

'Ideally, we would wait for the updated NICE guidance but it would take too long before we could produce and consult on a policy based on that guidance. That is why we are looking at an interim policy to bridge the gap between the current time and any long-term policy in 2025.'

'We will be asking the public for views and comments on our draft interim policy for assisted conception, which we have developed following the release of the Women's Health Strategy for England in summer 2022.' Dr Edmondson-Jones continued.

The ICB initially delayed cuts to fertility treatment funding in response to publication of the Women's Health Strategy guidelines in October 2022 (see BioNews 1161). However the changes proposed by the ICB exclude single infertile women and same-sex couples from access to any fertility treatment, including IUI.

Patients would only be allowed one 'cycle' of IVF which they define as including a single fresh or frozen embryo transfer, while couples in Stoke-on-Trent previously had access to two cycles with up to one fresh and two frozen embryos. The age limit for qualifying for NHS-funded treatment was increased for women in North Staffordshire from the age of 35 to 39.

Meanwhile, the proposal comes in light of a recently published academic study of the UK fertility treatment landscape by researchers at Queen Mary University of London. It highlights the impact on fertility patients of reduced NHS funding of fertility treatment and the resulting the growing privatisation of the sector. Patients were increasingly navigating a hybrid public/private landscape according to the study published in Health & Place.