It's great to see that the Royal College of Nursing has come out to call for better access to IVF funding. Although infertility affects one in six of us, 70% of trusts are still not offering the three full cycles of treatment recommended.
In a policy briefing paper, the RCN also calls for an end to the access criteria some trusts have invented in order to ration treatment. There are clear guidelines on who should qualify, but some trusts have chosen to ignore these and to invent their own rules instead. The paper also says that nurses should use their knowledge of the huge psychological impact of infertility to help commissioners understand what is involved. There is far too little awareness of the way infertility affects the well-being of those who can't conceive, and if nurses were able to help commissioners to have a proper understanding of this, it would make a huge difference.
The briefing paper also makes the point that providing three full cycles of IVF funded by the NHS would reduce the temptation to go for multiple embryo transfers which can have health implications for mothers and babies. This would not only lead to a safer system, but would also save NHS funds.
You can see the RCN press release at www.rcn.org
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