Fertility services – Update August 2024
There will be a phased re-opening of the fertility centre from Thursday 8 August 2024 following the decision by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to reinstate our licence.
The Trust has worked alongside the HFEA to address its concerns, put stringent practices in place, and updated equipment and documentation to ensure the licence was reinstated.
The Trust will continue to work with the HFEA in the coming months as we gradually reintroduce our services as part of a process that will prioritise patient safety and care.
Patient care
We want to make sure the service resumes in the safest way possible. For this reason, despite the HFEA reinstating our licence, we will not be accepting new referrals immediately. GPs will continue to refer patients to other providers as they are currently doing now.
We are writing to our patients who were impacted by the suspension of the licence in March informing them that if they had their treatment transferred elsewhere, the treatment will continue to take place there. If the transfer process to a new provider is still underway, that process will be continuing as planned.
Update on investigations
The total number of patients confirmed to be affected by all three incidents , to date , is 32.
A duty of candour process has been completed for all affected patients.
The Trust appointed external experts, and informed the HFEA of their appointment, to investigate the incidents. The Trust made the following immediate changes in the unit:
1. All our staff now work in pairs to ensure all clinical activities are checked by two healthcare professionals.
2. We have re-checked all competencies of staff within the unit.
3. We have increased the security and access points in the unit.
In all three investigations, the investigators found no evidence of misconduct, malice or intentional negligence, and a number of areas of good practice were identified, including the commitment and approach of the fertility centre staff.
However, all three investigations identified several areas where improvements needed to be made. A detailed action plan has been developed, bringing together the actions identified from the investigations.
The external expert reports were shared with the HFEA and their findings as well as the improvement plans are also being shared with the affected patients as part of the duty of candour process.
Support available
Depending on your query there are a list of contact options shown on the righthand side of this webpage under the ‘Contact Details’ heading.
The Trust has set up a specific email address for patients with any queries about the transfer of their care. Details are shown opposite.
Further information
Minutes of the HFEA July meeting can be found here . The statement from the Chair of the HFEA can be found here .