National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines
In 2004 (and updated in 2013) the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) published a clinical guideline entitled “Assessment and treatment for people with fertility problems”. This document was intended to provide a template that would be followed by all NHS Fertility services in England and Wales. The NICE guidelines also provided the then Primary Care Trusts (the organisations who decide on local levels of NHS funding) with guidelines on the number of treatments that should be provided to patients.
Funding for treatments is now decided by the Clinical Commissioning Groups. In our area we generally see patients who come under the following groups:
Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group
Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group
For more information about NICE please visit their website: www.nice.org.uk
The fertility guideline is available from the NICE website: www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg156