IVF expert angers fertility unit chief

Jun 2 2007 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL’S specialist fertility unit last night hit back at criticism by IVF expert Lord Winston, that the industry was “exploitative” of childless couples.

Lord Winston’s remarks at the Hay book festival have angered specialists at the country’s largest NHS provider of IVF treatment, the Hewitt Centre for Reproductive Medicine at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

Last night Charles Kingsland, clinical director at the centre, which also accepts privately paying clients who are not eligible for IVF on the NHS, said Lord Winston’s views did not adequately represent treatments being offered outside of London.

“It is very disappointing that the professor has very little idea or knowledge of what happens in the North of England,” said Mr Kingsland.

“He may be sitting in his ivory tower in London, where indeed some clinics do charge a lot of money for IVF, but in Liverpool women are not “exploited”.

“Liverpool Women’s Hospital fought tooth and nail for NHS funding. We set up in 1989 from nothing and now we are the biggest NHS unit in the country.”

Earlier this week Lord Winston told an audience at Hay: “One of the major problems facing us in healthcare is that IVF has become a massive commercial industry.

“Amazing sums of money are being made through IVF.

“It is really rather depressing to consider that some IVF treatments in London are charged at ten times the fee that is charged in Melbourne, where there is excellent medicine, where IVF is just as successful, where they have comparable salaries. So one has to ask oneself what has happened.

“What has happened, of course, is that money is corrupting this whole technology.”

The Hewitt centre offers IVF on the NHS and self-funded treatment for those who do not meet the criteria, for example, due to age or if they have already been sterilised.

The centre says it does not run to make a profit and that prices in the North are significantly lower than specialist units in the South.

Mr Kingsland added: “Treatments at the Hewitt Centre cost the same for NHS and self-funded treatment – IVF is IVF.

“But things like having to rent rooms and consultations mean that self-funded patients do pay significantly more.

“In Harley Street in London, you might pay up to £10,000, but it’s the patient’s choice.

“The bottom line is that patients should be made aware of what they are paying for, then the decision is up to them, provided it does not do them any harm.”

vickyanderson