Increase in number of mistakes made at fertility clinics

Apr 26 2010

By Candy Lashkari

For many couples IVF is the last hope they have of having a baby and with some IVF clinics committing such blunders as implanting the wrong embryos or fertilizing the egg with the wrong man’s sperm, these hope can soon turn into a nightmare.

Frightening statistics have revealed that such blunders at IVF clinics have risen 85% in a single year. 138 reported mistakes in fertility clinics in England in the previous year have become 334 cases in the year ending April 2009.

This news comes hot on the heels of the IVF clinic in Wales losing the last two embryos of a couple which had been frozen. Needless to say the patient is devastated at losing two potential babies. "I was sat there, gowned up, waiting to go in. They said you've got one embryo remaining, the other two have gone missing.” said Clare who has been trying to conceive a baby with partner Gareth.

Guy Forster, from the Birmingham law firm Irwin Mitchell, is representing Clare and Gareth’s case. He said, "It's deeply disturbing. It may be perhaps that the embryos have been lost - or in the worst case scenario an embryo has been transferred into the wrong patient."

For the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff this was the second such case in 12 months thanks to a mix up at the center. Three years ago it had bungled by implanting a couple’s last viable embryo in the wrong woman. An investigation has uncovered serious failings.

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said that the errors amount to less than one per cent of more than 50,000 IVF cycles carried out by the clinic. A spokesman for the HFEA said: “In embryology, as in all areas of clinical care, it is not possible to guarantee 100 per cent success.” Of course it may be argued that if all the IVF cycles were carried out error free there would be a higher rate of success.

Sammy Lee, an embryologist from University College London, said “I think the key failure of the HFEA is that when they ask clinics to put in special procedures, they’re not enforcing them. It’s important that when you’ve identified a weakness in a procedure, you quickly enforce it, and don’t wait a year to do so.”

"This raises concerns about the HFEA's ability to regulate the IVF industry properly. I think it should be doing a lot more to follow up when an incident occurs, especially at a clinic with a poor track record," said Guy Forster, adding "These problems appear to be on the rise."