IVF waiting times in Scotland
Quarter ending 31 March 2023

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an update on how long eligible patients waited from referral to a 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.

In this release, there are considerable changes to data for the Glasgow IVF Centre compared with previous publications. As part of the process to confirm if national warehouse data submitted by the Glasgow IVF Centre is accurate for publication, it was identified that the established process for recording referrals impacts the timely recording of adding patients to their waiting list. This issue affects both the aggregate submissions used in previous publications and the warehouse submissions. All data are now being reviewed meaning that in this release there is no data on referrals and patients waiting for the Glasgow IVF Centre. This also impacts Scotland totals which have been removed. Data on the number of patients screened and how long they waited is included for all 4 IVF Centres and at a Scotland level from January 2021 to March 2023 only. Data for the Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh IVF Centres are unaffected.

Main points

During the quarter ending 31 March 2023:

• the 90% standard was met, with 99.7% of patients attending a screening appointment within 52 weeks of referral. One patient waited more than 52 weeks to be screened.
• 325 patients were screened across the 4 IVF Centres, an increase of 14% compared to the previous quarter (285 patients).
• 97.5% of patients waited 39 weeks or less to be screened, a similar level to the previous quarter. 48.3% of patients were screened within 26 weeks, compared with 71.2% during the previous quarter.

A stacked bar chart showing the distribution of waiting times for patients who were screened for IVF treatment, by month January 2018 to March 2023. The time bands shown are 0-13 Weeks, 14-26 Weeks, 27-39 Weeks, 40-52 Weeks and over 52 Weeks. At the end of the reporting period during March 2023 25 patients waited 0-13 weeks to be screened, 38 waited 14-26 weeks, 58 waited 27-39 weeks, 1 waited 40-52 weeks and 0 waited over 52 weeks. In comparison during January 2021 41 patients waited 0-13 weeks to be screened, 55 waited 14-26 weeks, 9 waited 27-39 weeks, 38 waited 40-52 weeks and 0 waited over 52 weeks.

Close

Number and distribution of wait for patients screened across Scotland, January 2021 to March 2023

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).

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 29 August 2023.