IVF waiting times in Scotland
Quarter ending 31 December 2021

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland provides an update on how long eligible patients waited from referral to screening appointment for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment by the NHS in Scotland. The standard is for 90% of eligible patients to be screened at an IVF Centre within 52 weeks of receipt of a referral from a secondary care/acute consultant.

R - This release includes a revision of referrals data for all time points to include secondary referrals to the Glasgow IVF Centre where patients are seen within an infertility service staffed by the Assisted Conception Service (ACS) medical team. Scotland figures have also been revised.

Main points

During the quarter ending 31 December 2021:

• 364 patients were screened in comparison to 377 patients during the previous quarter. This is similar to the 367 patients screened on average during quarters in 2019.
• The 90% standard was met.
• 100% of patients waited 39 weeks or less to be screened, similar to the previous quarter (99.7%). Slightly more patients waited 26 weeks or less (54.7%) compared to the previous quarter (48.8%).

Number of eligible patients referred, screened and waiting to be screened across Scotland, January 2018 - December 2021

Close

Number of eligible patients referred, screened and waiting to be screened across Scotland, January 2018 to December 2021

• 284 referrals were received by the four IVF Centres across Scotland, 25.8% fewer than the 383 referrals received in the previous quarter ending 30 September 2021 and 29.2% less than the average during quarters of 2019.
• 721 patients were waiting to attend an IVF screening appointment, a reduction of 7.2% from the previous quarter, resulting from fewer referrals than the number of patients ending their wait during the quarter. The waiting list remains 16.1% higher than the average waiting list (621 patients) at the quarter ends of 2019, prior to the pandemic.
• Of those patients waiting to be screened at 31 December 2021 (721), all patients had been waiting 39 weeks or less from referral, with 48.1% (347 patients) waiting 13 weeks or less.

Background

IVF is an effective method of assisted reproductive technology used to treat infertility.  This includes intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) for male infertility. Where this publication refers to IVF, it includes IVF and ICSI. One full cycle of IVF includes ovulation induction, egg retrieval, fertilisation, transfer of fresh embryos, followed by freezing of suitable embryos and subsequent replacement of these provided the couple still fulfil the access criteria.

Each of the 14 territorial NHS boards in Scotland commissions cycles of IVF from one of the four specialist tertiary Centres providing NHS treatment (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow).

As with many other NHS Scotland services the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has affected the ability of the four Scottish IVF Centres to deliver treatment, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic when all treatment was paused briefly. Since then, the IVF Centres have been remobilising their services and have remained open for treatment up to 31 December 2021.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 31 May 2022.