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London hospital is top of IVF success league
Anna Davis02.07.08
Women who have fertility treatment at University College Hospital are more than twice as likely to get pregnant than at clinics elsewhere in the country, figures reveal today.
The figures, which reveal London's most successful fertility clinics over the whole of last year, show the hospital's Assisted Conception Unit has a pregnancy success rate from IVF of 60.9 per cent in women under 35.
According to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority the private clinic, attached to the central London NHS hospital, is now more successful-than the Upper Wimpole Street clinic run by London's most high-profile fertility doctor, Mohammed Taranissi.
His Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre has a success rate of 59.9 per cent - down from 60.7 per cent when figures were last released six months ago.
But it is still the second most successful IVF clinic in the capital with 175 of the 292 women who tried to get pregnant there succeeding - significantly more than most other clinics.
Today's figures also show the national average, based only on the first six months of 2007, is 29.6 per cent.
The data comes after Mr Taranissi was investigated by the HFEA over licensing arrangements as several women alleged they had IVF procedures at his second clinic when it was not approved by the regulator.
Mr Taranissi, who has been criticised for taking risks with multiple births, was allowed to continue to practise on a temporary licence and is still extremely popular due to his success rate. His company made a pre-tax profit of almost £8 million, based on charging £2,500 for a basic single IVF treatment.
The Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's hospital also made it into the top 10 London clinics. Today's figures show 32.1 per cent of women treated there throughout last year became pregnant.
The unit was the subject of a study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology earlier this year after the pregnancy rate rose from 27 per cent to 32.1 per cent, while multiple births dropped from 30 per cent to 17 per cent.
Specialists there used a technique that involves the best single embryo, instead of the usual two or three, to be transferred to the womb.
Mr Yakoub Khalaf, who is in charge of the clinic, said: "It is a myth that single embryo transfer lowers the success rate for pregnancy."
The HFEA has told clinics to cut the number of twin and triplet births because of the significantly higher chance of complications. But despite this, many parents insist on using two embryos because they want to maximise their chances of success.
• The Government said today the NHS will not fund Britons who travel abroad for medical care despite proposals on "health tourism" within Europe.
The Department of Health said it was "absolutely committed" to ensuring the NHS retains its ability to decide what care it will pay for.
It rejected a draft directive on cross-border healthcare allowing patients to shop around in all 27 European Union member states.
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