More than 70 per cent of NHS trusts break rules to deny IVF – and save money

Women unable to conceive naturally are being denied IVF on the NHS because they are too young, too old, too fat, smoke or live in Wales — in flagrant breaches of the guidelines.

The arbitrary nature of the restrictions placed on NHS fertility clinics around the country is revealed today in research which shows that more than 70 per cent of primary care trusts are ignoring guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) to offer infertile couples three free cycles of IVF.

Five of the trusts — Warrington, West Sussex, Stockport, North Yorkshire and York, and North Staffordshire — do not provide IVF on the NHS at all — via redwolf.newsvine.com