The last thing I wanted to do is post things on here with any political angle. I have my political views of course but sometimes I find it helps to blur them out and I speak/write (i hope) on behalf of the common good...that is part of my profession in local government too, so it's natural for me to roll this forward in other aspects of my life. So as I go on about health now, I hope that if anyone does read this they don't assume my perspective is to criticise a government. Because honestly I am not.
Our country is so blessed to have the concept of the national health service.
My issues with infertility and a decade long battle to get some kind of diagnosis, I hope gives me some rights to offer my perspective as a user of the 'service'. The extortionate tax rate I contribute I hope will also give me some rights to have a sunday night rant on funding!
I have read stories and snippets of comments from distraught couples who have been denied the rights to treatments for their infertility, including IVF and ICSI. There have been news items, features in breakfast television programmes, documentaries etc highlighting the injustices of the way the system has been played by various Primary Care Trusts applying their own versions and interpretations of criteria to access the funding.
It is fact, a couple can be denied the right to be funded for a treatment whilst their neighbour, in another PCT boundary nay not. This isn't just true of infertility treatments though, I know it happens with other medicines or treatments.
In fact 70% of PCTs fail to provide the recommended three cycles per couple funded treatment for infertility according to an MPs report (2011). But the implications of the 'postcode lottery' for infertility treatments are so far reaching, why cant they see that it makes sense to intervene, standardise and enforce a basic level of funding? My view - Its about time somebody told the NHS how to apply some strategic thinking.
You see men and women, like me and DH, that will spend years in diagnosis whilst struggling with emotional issues and sometimes medical issues to get to the point of starting any treatment. But why does society see infertility as a lifestyle problem?
Infertility isn't a choice, it's an illness, with side effects. Without funding for the treatment couples will still be placing demands on the NHS, not least to deal with their grief! It's surely these unseen effects on mental health and well being that is being overlooked.
The NHS...couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.
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