IVF waiting times in Scotland
Quarter ending 31 March 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 referral from a secondary care/acute consultant.

Main points

• During the quarter ending 31 March 2021, 295 referrals were received by the four IVF Centres across Scotland, a 6.9% increase compared with 276 referrals during quarter ending 31 March 2020. There were 220 referrals in quarter ending 31 December 2020.
• During the quarter ending 31 March 2021, 353 eligible patients were screened, a 10.9% decrease compared with 396 patients screened during quarter ending 31 March 2020. There were 380 patients screened during quarter ending 31 December 2020. The impact of COVID-19 continues to affect the number of patients that can be screened but all IVF Centres remained open and screening appointments continued during the national lockdown announced in December 2020. In each quarter, 100% of all patients screened waited for 52 weeks or less.
• At 31 March 2021, 726 eligible patients were waiting to be screened, a rise of 5.2% compared to 690 patients at 31 March 2020. There were 670 patients waiting at 31 December 2020. In each quarter 100% of all patients were waiting for 52 weeks or less.

Distribution of waiting times for eligible patients who were waiting to be screened for IVF treatment across Scotland by quarter, October 2019 - March 2021

• Of those eligible patients waiting at 31 March 2021, 83.8% had been waiting 26 weeks or less compared to 77.1% at 31 December 2020, while the proportion of patients waiting 40 weeks or more reduced from 11.3% to less than 1% at 31 March 2021. IVF Centres prioritised screening appointments for patients with longer waits, while the recovery in referral numbers resulted in a higher proportion of patients with shorter waits.
• The 90% standard continues to be met since it was first measured in March 2015.

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 a result of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, the four Scottish IVF Centres collectively agreed not to start any new treatment after 17 March 2020. In May, permission to restart services was granted by the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA). IVF Centres began a stepped restart in line with the framework for restarting fertility services (external website) and subsequently the Fertility Services: Winter 2020/2021 preparation plan (external website). Following the national lockdown announced in December 2020, the HFEA issued a statement (5 January 2021) (external website) to confirm that licensed clinics could continue to offer fertility treatment, acknowledging local circumstances may mean a clinic might have to suspend services.

Further information

Open data for this publication is also available from the Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data portal (external website).

The next release of this publication will be 31 August 2021.