March 9, 2024

expert reaction to news that a London fertility clinic has had its license suspended

Scientists react to news that a fertility clinic in London has had its license suspended. 

Peter Thompson, Chief Executive of the HFEA, said:

“The HFEA has suspended Homerton Fertility Centre’s licence to operate with immediate effect, due to significant concerns about the clinic.

“The HFEA Licence Committee made this decision because of the potential risk to patients, gametes and embryos if the clinic’s licence is not suspended with immediate effect.

“We appreciate this may cause concern to patients who are undergoing treatment at the clinic, or have eggs, sperm and/or embryos stored there. We do not want to disrupt patients’ treatment if they have already started medication as part of a treatment cycle, so we have made provisions to allow them to complete their treatment if they wish to do so.

“The clinic must continue to store eggs, sperm, and embryos safely. All HFEA licensed clinics can be found here and they will be able to advise patients further on transporting their eggs, sperm or embryos if they would like to do so.”

Sarah Norcross, Director of the Progress Educational Trust (PET), said:

‘The Homerton Fertility Centre has an inspection rating of 4/5 from the UK fertility regulator – the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority – which last inspected the clinic in February 2023, and extended the clinic’s licence until 2026.

‘It needs to be established, via thorough investigation, what has gone wrong at the clinic since last year’s inspection. This is necessary so that we can understand what has happened, and so that we can make sure it does not happen anywhere else.

‘Patients informed that their embryos might be lost will be devasted by this news. Some of these patients may fear that they have lost their chance to become parents. How these patients will be compensated remains to be seen.’

*https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68510577

Declared interests

For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.