Assisted Reproduction · Registries and Reporting
RRM Academy Synopsis
UK Fertility Regulator's 2017-2018 Report on Clinic Safety and Care
This report is the UK fertility regulator's 2017-2018 review of all 133 licensed clinics. 570 safety incidents were reported, about 1 in 100 of the roughly 80,000 cycles carried out that year. Patient complaints rose 21% to 86. 83% of patients who rated their clinic said they'd recommend it to family or friends.
Key Findings
- In 2017/18, 133 licensed clinics carried out 84,055 IVF and donor insemination cycles, 83% of them standard IVF treatment and 7% donor insemination.
- IVF's multiple birth rate fell from 26% to 11% for fresh cycles (a 54% drop) and 17% to 10% for frozen cycles (a 40% drop) between 2005/6 and 2016/17.
- There were 570 adverse incidents or near misses in 2017/18, about 1% of all cycles; roughly half of clinical incidents involved OHSS, with 52 graded severe or critical.
- Inspectors recorded 380 non-compliances with the Code of Practice: 23 critical, 191 major and 166 other.
- Patient complaints to the regulator rose 21%, from 71 in 2016/17 to 86 in 2017/18; 37% were clinical and 34% were communication-related.
Interpretation
This is the UK regulator's second yearly report. The report draws on data from nearly every licensed clinic in the country, a near-complete picture of the whole sector for that year. Clinics are required to report their own incidents to the regulator, and patients can complain directly once a clinic's own process is exhausted. The report says the incident rate has stayed broadly stable, even as the raw count rises because more cycles are performed each year. About 1,500 patients chose to rate their clinic online. The 1,500 respondents are a small share of the patients treated that year, so their views may not reflect other patients' experience.
RRM Context
This regulator tracks real risks from IVF: hundreds of incidents a year and dozens of severe OHSS cases. The multiple birth rate is still above target. Most UK patients, over 60%, pay for treatment themselves, in a market worth about £320 million a year. Restorative reproductive medicine looks for and treats the cause of infertility first.
Abstract not indexed. Read at source
