"My husband and I were referred ..."

What could be improved

My husband and I were referred to the Burton Centre for Reproductive Medicine due to fertility problems. It took over 5 months from referral by my GP for tests to be performed diagnosing my husband's fertility problem and for a course of treatment to be determined. I had a blood test for hormone levels but this test was performed at the wrong time of the month so was pointless. When I asked whether they would be performing further tests on me I was advised that this would not be necessary because the treatment (ICSI) would be the same. However, my husband and I have sought treatment elsewhere and I have had tests which have confirmed that I have a condition (hydrosalpinx) which means that, if I did get pregnant, I would have a very high chance of miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. I therefore need surgery before fertility treatment can start. We only get one NHS funded cycle and I believe that, if we had continued our treatment at Burton, their failure to carry out tests on me would have rendered the treatment unsuccessful.

We were disappointed that we were misled about the chances of success at the Burton treatment centre. The nurse quoted the national success rate rather than the treatment centre's success rate (which is less than the national average). We were not informed that we had a choice of one of six treatment centres at any stage - we found this out for ourselves. We actually had the choice of treatment at a centre which has double the success rate of Burton Hospital. Finally, we found that the treatment centre was very inefficient. For example, rather than give us forms to complete during one of our hospital appointments we had to wait several weeks for them to arrive by post. I believe that the whole process is very protracted. The number of stages is excessive as is the waiting time between every stage. Surely these could be reduced, particularly as infertility is a time sensitive issue.

At no point were we told that