Business News The Griffin Report


Birmingham Women’s Fertility Clinic provides IVF treatment for NHS patients who meet the necessary criteria – and for women under 35 it currently boasts an impressive pregnancy success rate of around 50 per cent. Chamberlink’s award-winning columnist Jon Griffin talked to the clinic’s director Dr Sue Avery about its work on behalf of couples and women desperate for parenthood.


It has been described as the biggest breakthrough in fertility since the pill was introduced at the dawn of the 60s – and it’s available on the NHS right on Birmingham’s doorstep. As the National Health Service


suffers its annual winter crisis – at least according to certain elements of Fleet Street – one local arm of the NHS is doing its utmost to provide “little miracles” for couples/women desperate for parenthood. Far removed from the winter


crisis beloved by headline writers at this time of year, the Birmingham Women’s Fertility Clinic next door to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a remarkable success story whose services are so popular that more staff are required to keep pace with public demand. The clinic, based at Birmingham


Women’s Hospital , provides IVF treatment for NHS patients who meet the necessary criteria – and for women under 35 it currently boasts an impressive pregnancy success rate of around 50 per cent. That rate has more than doubled


over nearly a quarter of a century since IVF treatment was first made available on the NHS in Birmingham – and the team who work to perform daily miracles for anxious would-be mothers are justifiably proud of their track record. Director of the clinic Dr Sue


Avery said: “There has been a fertility clinic here and we have been doing IVF since 1994 but it has really taken off in the last 13 to 14 years. “It is extraordinary that against


all the trends and the news, it has attracted increased NHS funding. Since 1994 pregnancy rates have gone up considerably – we have learnt an awful lot. “When we first started, the


success rate was 20 to 25 per cent. Now our target rate for women under 35 is 50 per cent and we generally hit that. Over 40, it plummets, if we think that they do not have a reasonable chance, we do not treat, even if they say they will pay. “Privately, you can treat anybody


– we have to take account of the welfare of the potential child. Having a child is not a right – you


14 CHAMBERLINK February 2018 Dr Sue Avery: Demand for IVF treatment is “overwhelming”


‘It is extraordinary that against all the trends and the news, it has attracted increased NHS funding. Since 1994 pregnancy rates have gone up considerably – we have learnt an awful lot’


have a right not to be discriminated against in terms of whether you are considered for treatment. “Once you have looked at all the


aspects and if you think it is unsafe, there is nothing to compel us to go ahead and treat. It is a really hard thing to turn somebody away but if we have to, we do.” That approach to prospective


patients by Dr Avery and her team is just one of the differentials which distinguishes the Women’s Hospital clinic and its 35-strong staff from its private counterparts, with more than 70 licensed centres in the UK. “We are the only NHS-based


centre in Birmingham and we have a different ethos. There are a lot of places providing add-ons with


treatment, for which patients are charged a lot of money. Cost is a huge issue and our costs are significantly lower than private.” Dr Avery said the price of IVF


treatment at the Women’s Hospital was just over £3,000, with comparable private fees from £5,000 to £6,000, and sometimes up to £10,000. Half the patients are NHS- funded, and the other 50 per cent self-funded, depending on criteria. “Some people think they should


jump the queue, they should have a nice environment, fish tanks and cushions – people are happy to pay for the frills and luxury elsewhere.” The success rate of the clinic is


reflected by a current recruitment drive at a time of heightened


national debate over the very future of the NHS. “We are recruiting two more nurses, health care assistants, two more doctors, two more admin staff. “It will fund itself, and it will put


funds back into the trust. Anything that is paid by the patients goes back into the trust. “At the moment, we are


overwhelmed by patients and that is why we are recruiting. Demand is increasing and the wait is getting longer.” But cost is far from the central


issue surrounding IVF, even when treatment amounts to thousands of pounds. As Dr Avery points out: “I am not a maternal person but when couples come to see us and I look at the babies I think to myself ‘I knew you when you were just four cells – it is really quite strange. “It is a fabulous feeling, really


wonderful. We are all animals and the major purpose of a human being is to reproduce, a fundamental drive. This is a really great place to work.”


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