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Soaring numbers of childless couples are losing out on the dream of becoming parents due to increasing numbers of blunders at IVF clinics.
Around 200 serious mistakes and near misses by fertility doctors have been recorded this year but experts warn the true number of errors could be much higher.
The shocking statistics come after a string of distressing mix-ups at IVF clinics. Yesterday it emerged that a Cardiff fertility clinic implanted a couple's last usable embryo into the wrong woman.
The demand for fertility treatment has rocketed over the last decade with increasing numbers of women wanting babies later in life and a fall in male sperm counts.
Around 35,000 women will undergo IVF treatment this year compared to just 23,000 in 1995.
The number of clinics offering the treatment has reamined at 120 for the past 14 years, meaning an increased workload and more chances to make mistakes.
In 2003-2004 there were 59 reported incidents' at IVF clinics, ranging from serious mistakes to more trivial near misses' where labelling or storage errors were spotted at the last minute.
By 2006-07, the last year for which there are official figures, the number of reported mistakes had risen to 173.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) revealed that the blunder count' for 2007-08 -due in the watchdog's annual report in August - would be even higher.
But the increase cannot just be explained by the increased use of IVF. In 2003-04 there were 15 mistakes for every 10,000 cycles' of IVF. But by 2006-07 there were 40 mistakes for each 10,000 cycles.
Josephine Quintavalle, from Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: There will be a lot more cases than people realise. You can't rely on the goodness of people to own up to their mistakes.
"It's incomprehensible how these things can happen - even the busiest clinics rarely deal with more than half a dozen patients each day.
"These clinics are dealing with the creation of human life. We need to have a proper inquiry into these problems - it's not good enough to say they are rare incidents."
Reader views (4)
Its natural that some couples are biologically incapable of producing offspring. This is nothing more than "I have a right to have anything I want" whine.
- Trunk, US, 15/06/2009 17:47
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Ge and Man U Fan, I quiet agree with you. When the NHS budget is so stretched it should go to saving lives, not to try and provide couples with chilren. The clue is in the title the National HEALTH Service. To think that cancer patients and other needy patients are suffering to finance IVF is a disgrace.
- Shirley, London, 15/06/2009 15:23
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Agree with you fully Ge! My local health trust has at various times not given people the latest treatments for cancer and macular degeneration. However they seem to have money for IVF treatment in this massively overcrowded country. Who sets these priorities?
- Man U Fan, London, 15/06/2009 13:07
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The NHS should be about health not IVF. I know of a few couples who had expensive cars\holidays\homes for decades and then regreted not starting a family when they could. One women had 5 abortions and is now receiving IVF on the NHS.
The NHS should be about saving life, if these people want IVF go private same with plastic surgery.
- Ge, Kernow, 15/06/2009 09:41
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