Apricity Fertility Closure

Debate between Baroness Merron and Baroness Deech

Wednesday 12th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

Women’s health hubs—which are a huge success and we continue to support and promote them, without any shadow of a doubt—do not deal with fertility treatment in the way this Question is discussing. I gently point out to the noble Lord that, as he rightly said, commitments were made to improve access to fertility services, which is very variable across the country. They were made under the last Government’s women’s health strategy but, regrettably, were not delivered. It now falls to us to look at how we can improve both availability and quality, and to equalise what is available, which is a huge challenge. This continues to concern me.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a former chair of the HFEA. The problem the Minister has referred to is increasing commercialisation. Vulnerable patients are more or less captured by clinics—for example, by being charged ever-increasing amounts for the storage of their embryos. How can the Government get to grips with the market element in an area that is largely private? Can they encourage the NHS? I know the difficulty of taking on more. What legislation can there be to control this commercialisation and the huge amount earned by the private doctors?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Baroness and other noble Lords are quite right in what they are reporting on the change. Fertility treatment is now overwhelmingly obtained through private means. It is in a very different place from the rest of healthcare in our country.

On the point the noble Baroness made—I am grateful for her contribution in view of her previous service in this area—there are many claims made, for example, about egg freezing. It is crucial that anyone considering freezing their eggs understands that there is an optimum age for freezing, that it is a serious medical procedure and that the risks should be taken into account. That chimes with the point made by my noble friend Lord Winston.

The market has changed—it has very much become a market. The demand is huge and has multiplied many times over the decades. We are not in a situation where we have either the regulation or the NHS provision to deal with that. I assure your Lordships’ House that we are working with NHS England, particularly on the variability up and down the country.