Wales moves towards uniform IVF provision

The Welsh Assembly Government has published access criteria outlining which infertile couples in Wales would be eligible for state-funded IVF treatment. All couples meeting the criteria will be allowed one full cycle of IVF on the NHS. According to the National Infertility Awareness Campaign (NIAC), access to treatments in Wales has varied considerably until now, with some patients in North, Mid and West Wales having no access to IVF at all.

In February 2004, the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued clinical guidelines stating that all health authorities should provide three IVF cycles to infertile couples, with a view to ending the 'postcode lottery' of service provision in the area. In response, the then Health Secretary, Sir John Reid, announced that all infertile couples fitting certain criteria should be given one free cycle of IVF on the NHS from April 2005, with a view to further increasing provision in the future. Couples in Wales who met the clinical criteria set by NICE plus any social criteria established by the Welsh Assembly should have been eligible for one IVF cycle from April.

The Welsh Government sought the advice of a working group and issued a public consultation on the social criteria to be used. Originally, it was proposed that funded IVF treatment would be ruled out for couples if one partner already had a child. This would have included adopted children and would have applied even if the child did not live with the couple. This provision has now been removed from the social criteria, to the 'delight' of NIAC, although couples where both partners have a child, and the child lives with the couple, will still be ineligible.

Provisions that do remain include that couples should have been trying for a baby for two years or more, and that the woman should be referred for IVF treatment before the age of 38, with treatment starting before she reaches the age of 40. Smokers will have to sign up to a 'supported programme of smoking cessation' before they will be allowed treatment, and overweight women will have to agree to try and lose weight.

Despite the social eligibility criteria, the provisions will enable about 600 new Welsh patients to have access to IVF than before. Clare Brown, chair of NIAC, welcomed the news, saying that there are still 'huge variations' in the provision of IVF services across the UK. 'We hope the Welsh Assembly Government can provide a timeframe for the implementation of this decision, as well as indicate when it expects the NHS in Wales to implement the NICE guideline in full', she said.