Sextuplets case leads to cut in NHS treatment: Couples may have to pay for fertility care
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Your support makes all the difference.FERTILITY treatment on the National Health Service is to be cut in the wake of the public outcry over the disclosure that a couple who are not married have had sextuplets after NHS treatment, writes Colin Brown.
Virginia Bottomley, Secretary of State for Health, will issue guidelines urging health authorities to limit the availability of fertility treatment on the NHS, to the minimum, particularly helping women who are in stable relationships and are childless.
As a result of the guidelines, most couples seeking fertility treatment may have to pay for the treatment from the private sector in future.
The limitation of fertility treatment on the NHS will rekindle the debate about rationing of health care to cut NHS costs. Mrs Bottomley recently ruled out directing doctors on treatment no longer available on the NHS.
Discretion will be left to doctors and health authorities, but the fertility case could have far-reaching consequences in the current row over public expenditure cuts, beyond the moral issues it raises.
Labour has warned that the Government is planning to reduce health cover on the NHS to 'core' items such as surgery, stopping free food in hospitals for those who can afford to pay, as part of the Treasury's long-term review of health spending.
Mrs Bottomley made it clear that she was dismayed by the case in which Jean Gibbons, a divorcee with a son, was able to obtain fertility treatment on the NHS. Tory MPs yesterday questioned the morality of allowing the couple, who are not married, to obtain their treatment free of charge on the health service.
Moral whirlwind, page 19
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