Many NHS centres offering self funded in vitro fertilisation are poor performers

Like primary care trusts before them, many clinical commissioning groups are ignoring the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) 2004 and 2013 guidance on providing three NHS funded IVF cycles. 1 Couples are left to dig deep, paying thousands of pounds for NICE recommended treatments to centres that perhaps have failed them before. The findings of the BMJ investigation are worrying because self funded or top-up care is offered to couples even by hospital trusts who are not fully licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).