LOCAL CAMPAIGN MOVES UP TO JOIN WITH NATIONAL INFERTILITY AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

We have been liaising with a patient in Oxford who is fighting his PCT and campaigning for access to NHS treatment.  He would now like to step up a level and join the NIAC Campaign for fair and equitable access to NHS fertility across the country and has emailed around patients asking them for their support.

Below is his request for patients across the country to join in the national campaign. If you would like to join in please feel free to use the template letters provided by either Richard or by NIAC – just remember to copy NIAC on your email so we can add your voice to the NIAC Campaign.

NIAC has for over fifteen years campaigned for better access to NHS treatment and we are increasingly seeing progress made across the country, although much still needs to be done in some areas, including in Oxford.

Remember you can access all the information on the current funding situation across the country at our Funding for Fertility section of the website where you can also download template letters and find more information on lobbying your MP and PCT. This also shows you how to appeal to your PCT if they refuse you funding.  Please feel free to email NIAC directly  if you have a specific query or complaint about a funding issue.

Thank you for supporting this initiative.

Clare Lewis-Jones
Chair – National Infertility Awareness Campaign
And
Chief Executive – Infertility Network UK

Dear Supporter,

Quick question: could we make a difference to IVF funding rules in the
UK over the next few weeks?

Damn straight we could! But we will need to work hard and apply as much
pressure as we can…

Two months ago I started a campaign against my local Primary Care Trust
(PCT) to highlight the fact that they discriminate against couples that
need IVF treatment.

When I started it was only me – just one voice speaking out against a
PCT. Over the weeks people joined the campaign one by one and now we
have hundreds of people that are making a stand against their local PCT.

Now it is time to take this campaign to a national level and finally
bring an end to this so-called ‘Postcode Lottery’ in funding fertility
treatment throughout the UK.

All I have is one question: are you in?

Will you take just 2 minutes of your time to stand up to PCT’s up and
down the country that discriminate against hard working taxpayers?

If so, you will be making a difference to thousands of couples
throughout the country that just have one simple wish – to be Mummies
and Daddies. Couples like Jackie and I.

To make your voice heard and your opinion count, all you need you to do
is send a simple email to your MP. You can email your MP simply be tapping your postcode into the box at http://www.upmystreet.com/commons/l/ and filling in the
boxes.

That’s it – it’s that simple… The question is: will you help thousands
of couples in the next two minutes? Can we count on you?

Once you have got your email off to your MP, please email us (with a copy to niac@infertilitynetworkuk.com) to let us know so that we can keep an eye on which MP’s have received emails. Our email address is ivf@oxfordtribe.com – all we need is the name of the MP that you have emailed the letter off to.

Please then try and find at least ten friends to send an email to their
MP’s just like you did. If you did this and your ten friends found
another ten friends to take action then that would be over a hundred
letters that would have gone off to MP’s just because of the action that
you have taken in just two minutes… How fantastic would that be?

Together we will make an impact over the next few weeks!

Warmly,

Richard MacKenzie

###Start of Template Letter###

Re: Postcode Lottery in regards to IVF funding in the UK

Dear [Your MPs Name],

I am writing to you today to call on your support as my MP to address
the shocking inequality in the level of healthcare received by infertile
couples across the UK. I am sure that this will have come to your
attention and I am sure that you also share in the frustration and
disappointment of your constituents.

As I am sure you are aware, currently local Primary Care Trusts can make
their own rules as to how they allocate funding for various treatments,
including the availability of life saving cancer drugs, gender
reassignment and in this case, IVF treatments which may be a couples
only chance of becoming parents.

The current funding policies and structure of PCT’s in the UK are
inherently wrong and have thus created a national ‘Postcode Lottery’, to
which residents in areas of the UK that do not follow the full National
Institute of Clinical Excellence guidelines have become the losers.

Couples in certain areas around the country are being denied funding for
IVF treatment on the following grounds, which we believe constitutes
blatant discrimination:

• Age: In some areas funding can be denied on the basis of the females
age. For example in some areas funding is denied if the female is under
35 or over 38. There is a proposal in place in certain areas which will
bring this age range down so that the female must be between 30 and 34
to qualify. There has also been a suggestion that there will be no
handover period, so that women who turn 35 this year will have a very
short window to receive funding. It is possible that there will be women
who have been waiting several years to have IVF who may /never /be
eligible if they turn 35 at the wrong time.

• Sexual orientation: In some PCT’s IVF funding is denied to same sex
couples.

• Existing Children: If one partner within a couple has a child from a
previous relationship then IVF treatment is not funded.

The discrimination is twofold: Firstly, based on the rules pointed out
above – in contravention of established Government guidelines – and
secondly based on an individual’s place of residence. I am sure you will
agree that this is unacceptable and must be challenged and corrected
immediately.

We believe that it should be made law that ALL PCT’s across the UK
should follow full NICE guidelines.

Former Secretary of State for Health, Dr John Reid, made the following statement when the NICE Guidance was issued in 2004 “he wanted all PCT’s, including those who at present provide no IVF treatment, to offer at least one full cycle of treatment to all those eligible by April 2005. In the longer term I would expect the NHS to make progress towards full implementation of the Nice guidance”. But, whilst progress has been made, this still has not gone far enough and some areas remain woefully under-funded.

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1544312/IVF-postcode-lottery-is-heartache-for-thousands-of-couples.html

The National Infertility Awareness Campaign (NIAC) has carried out surveys over the last few years which confirm that the postcode lottery is denying treatment to many couples across the country and has campaigned to end this unfair situation.  Your colleague, Grant Shapps MP, also highlighted this discrimination in 2007, yet still nothing has changed.

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1544314/IVF-treatment-by-region.html

I am asking you, as my MP to support this campaign, specifically to ask
you to write to the Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP, Secretary of State for
Health to make all UK PCT’s follow full NICE guidelines, and make our
National Health Service truly National and not dependent on which PCT
you fall under.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

[Your Name]

###End of Template Letter###