FOI 2025/1299

1) Page 13 of the consultation document states that “More information about the standards and the evidence that we used can be found on our NHS GM IVF webpage” however the link directs me to the following web page https://gmintegratedcare.org.uk/in-vitro-fertilisation-ivf-cycles-in-greater-manchester/ which states “Page not found” Please would it be possible to have a copy of the information about the standards and evidence used?

2) Appendix G of The GM IVF Cycles Review Engagement Report from 2024 https://democracy.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=32972 states that “27 March 2018: Trafford CCG’s Governing Body […] agreed to retain one cycle of IVF and renegotiate costs with the providers.” I can’t find any information about this online so is it possible for me to have further information about if this renegotiation took place (or any subsequent renegotiations once the CCGs were replaced by GMICB) and what the results were? Obviously I can work out from the information given in the consultation document that the average cost of a cycle to GMICB is around £2,500 but I would be particularly interested to know how the cost varies between NHS and private providers.

3) If the following information isn’t included in the document(s) referred to in my first question is it possible for me to receive information for the most recent year you have data about how many 1st/ 2nd/ 3rd IVF cycles were undertaken that year by people in Greater Manchester and of those how many 1st/ 2nd/ 3rd cycles led to a live birth? Again I would find it useful if this could be split into NHS providers and private clinics.

Thankyou for your interest in the consultation, a member of our team is going to contact you directly.

Q1 – Thank you for alerting us the link has now been rectified.

There is more detailed information about the questions you have asked contained in the papers for the May meeting of NHS GM’s Board which are published here Meetings/Events | Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership

Q2 – The Trafford CCG 2018 decision resulted in a procurement exercise which led to two independent sector providers of IVF cycles to be commissioned (Care Fertility and Create Fertility) for the population of Greater Manchester in addition to the NHS contracts with Manchester Foundation NHS Trust and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust..  The detail of the contracts between NHS GM and these independent sector providers are commercial in confidence and so cannot be shared.

Q3 – The Board report notes

Reporting on the number of cycles is complex – there are data quality issues associated with the activity (and associated finance) figures in this report,

NHS GM commissioned approximately 1037 IVF cycles in 2023/24 from 2 NHS Trusts and 2 Independent Sector providers.

A model has been developed to estimate the number of first / second / third cycles that were commissioned in 2023/24 and to predict how many cycles would be commissioned if the policy was changed.  There are untested assumptions within the modelling and varying levels of confidence in the output – some options use small sample sizes.  The model suggests the breakdown of activity is 853 first cycles, 167 second cycles and 17 third cycles in 2023/24 (i.e. an estimate of 853 women accessed treatment, some had more than one cycle of treatment).

With these caveats, and noting there are restrictions on NHS GM in terms of the level of information it can share (i.e. breaking down 17 third cycles across 4 providers would be an inappropriate level of detail), the estimated activity breakdown for 2023/24 is shown below: