Editor—Ashcroft confuses two issues.1 Local health care provision should reflect the overall profile of the health needs of the local population. However, this fact does not justify a local political process deciding whether childless women with a fertility problem should be given free cycles of in vitro fertilisation treatment.
Suppose that the bulk of the population of a local region is retired. The priorities might then be hip replacements and cataract surgery. Nevertheless, a significant number of couples might have fertility problems that could be treated by in vitro fertilisation. In this case, it would surely be appropriate for those couples to be treated in another region for no more than the costs of travel.
Facilitation of such a process demands exactly the kind of central planning that Ashcroft opposes.
Competing interests: GML is medical director of an independent in vitro fertilisation clinic that provides NHS and private fertility treatment.
References
- 1.Ashcroft RE. In vitro fertilisation for all? BMJ 2003;327: 511-2. (6 September.) [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]