Couples wait six months to three years for IVF in 'postcode lottery'

Published on Tuesday 20 October 2009 22:07

COUPLES seeking IVF treatment face a "postcode lottery" across the country, it was claimed yesterday.

Waiting times can range from six months to three years depending on the health board area, Labour said.

The Scottish Government said there was a "huge demand" for treatment and some health boards still needed to make progress.

But Dumbarton Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: "The health secretary Nicola Sturgeon needs to act to end this postcode lottery. We need national guidelines to ensure patients in every part of Scotland are treated fairly and have access to treatment as quickly as possible."

Ms Baillie was given figures by 11 health board areas and they showed that the longest average waiting time was in NHS Lothian where there were 400 patients seeking treatment, waiting an average of three years.

In Fife, where there were 180 patients, the maximum waiting time was 26 months and in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the wait was about 22 months.

The shortest waiting time for IVF treatment was with NHS Borders where there was no waiting list and all patients were treated within six months of referral.

NHS Lanarkshire, which had 60 patients waiting, said that its patients could also expect to be treated within six months.

Ms Baillie said there was no consistency in the rules. She added: "NHS Borders will fund patients for treatment in neighbouring areas if they have shorter waiting lists, but other health boards refuse to consider such a sensible step."

But public health minister Shona Robison said the government was working to make access "as fair as possible." She said: "There is certainly a huge demand for IVF and it can be upsetting for people having to wait, I appreciate that."

The government is funding the Infertility Network Scotland which works with boards to improve access, while an expert group is being set up to look into the waiting times couples face and wider issues around IVF.

Ms Robison added: "Some boards have still got progress to make, but I would say that a lot of progress has been made."

She said that in Grampian, people had been waiting five years under Labour four years ago, but that was now down to 14 months.

Meanwhile, a new study revealed women who take part in group counselling and relaxation techniques have more than double the chance of falling pregnant through IVF.

Attending up to ten sessions of a specialised "mind-body" programme, which included cognitive behavioural therapy, boosted pregnancy rates for those undergoing fertility treatment.

The effect was most profound among patients who considered themselves to be depressed at the start of the study.

A total of 97 women aged 40 and under took part in the clinical trial, carried out at the Domar Centre in Boston in the US.

Dr Alice Domar, who led the study, said: "We know that stress and infertility have a connection but it's been very controversial for a few years."

ALCOHOL CUTS IVF SUCCESS RATES

WOMEN who drink just a few glasses of white wine a week cut their chance of successful IVF, research shows.

Men can also reduce their hopes of fathering a child if they consume a daily beer.

Meanwhile, couples where both partners drink six units a week – equivalent to sharing a bottle of wine – reduce their chance of a live birth by 26 per cent.

Experts from Harvard Medical School in Boston asked 2,574 couples about to embark on IVF how much they drank and what type of alcohol they liked.

Of the group, 56 per cent of women and 34 per cent of men drank less than one alcoholic drink a week, while 4 per cent of women and 5 per cent of men drank at least once a day.

Dr Brooke Rossi, who led the study, said men and women who each had six UK-equivalent units a week or more "significantly reduced their likelihood of pregnancy".

This is equivalent to drinking two strong pints of beer or two large glasses of wine.

Those women cut their chance of getting pregnant by 18 per cent, while the men reduced their chance of a live birth by 14 per cent.

The data was presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Atlanta.