© evolvepolitics
How IVF became a licence to print money.
As we tumble toward a hard Brexit and trade deals with the USA allowing the private sector into the heart of the NHS, we can see how things will work out in the already privatised IVF service in England and contrast it with the state-controlled and regulated version, in Scotland. See this from the Guardian today:
‘Private fertility clinics routinely try to sell desperate patients add-ons that almost certainly don’t help – why isn’t more done to monitor the industry? Around three-quarters of all IVF cycles fail. And results vary with age. Figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) published in March state the average live birth-rate for each fresh embryo transferred for women of all ages is 21%; for those aged under 35, it is 29% – the highest it has ever been. For older women, the picture is bleaker: 10% for women aged 40-42, for example. IVF is expensive. And what makes it worse, says Hugh Risebrow, the report’s author, is the lack of pricing transparency. “The headline prices quoted may be, say, £3,500, but you end up with a bill of £7,000,” he says. “This is because there are things not included that you need – and then things that are offered but are not evidence-based.”’
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/18/how-ivf-became-a-licence-to-print-money
Creating opportunities for the private sector
In Tory-run NHS England, only 12% of boards offer three full cycles in line with official guidance. 61% offer only one cycle of treatment and 4% offer none at all. Private treatment costs between £1 343 and £5 788 per cycle.
Creating knock-on effects in women’s mental health
Failing to treat infertility can result in problems and further costs for the NHS in other areas. A Danish study of 98 737 women, between 1973 and 2003, showed that women who were unable to have children were 47% more likely to be hospitalised for schizophrenia and had a significantly higher risk of subsequent drug and alcohol abuse. See this:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22020-infertility-may-increase-risk-of-mental-disorders/
Why UK politicians would like more privatisation in the NHS
There are 64 Tory and Labour (New) MPs with ‘links’ to private health care. Why would we trust them to protect the NHS? See this:
Whitaboot Scotland?
Well, leaving aside any obvious and probably tasteless suggestions, of superior potency in Scots males (I have 4, I think….bairns not testacles!), see this from ISD on 29th May 2018:
‘The four IVF centres in Scotland screened 370 eligible patients, compared with 362 in the previous quarter. 100% of patients were screened for IVF treatment within 365 days. The 90% target continues to be met since it was first measured in March 2015.’
BBC Scotland:
‘That’s just the kind of meaningless whitabootery we get from cybernats like ‘prof’ Robertson. You can’t compare Scotland with England………eh, unless it’s GDP or…..drug abuse….or…..actually we’re running out of topics where we can even lie about Scotland being worse than the non-Scottish parts of the UK.’
Talking-up Scotland 
Well if you can afford to pay for it in Toryland you will get it , for everyone else tough , social engineering ?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Birthlines and social engineering concerns? – This line of thinking permits me to stray ever so slightly off topic and mention the apparent ‘lineage’ of the tory MP who advised Iain Blackford that “..suicide..” was the best option when Iain enquired of the Speaker what options remained for Scottish MPs to debate the tory smash and grab raid on the Devo Settlement when only 15 mins of ‘debate’ was provided – and that entirely used up by the tory minister.
The ‘suicide’ tory backbencher is a charmer called Ian Richard Peregrin Liddell-Grainger. For those impressed by such nonsense he has a ‘distinguished’ lineage (from wiki and sources) see below a potted history of this ‘Honourable and Gallant Member’ and smile a ghastly smile:
Ian Richard Peregrine Liddell-Grainger (born 23 February 1959) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bridgwater between the 2001 general election and 2010 and the Bridgwater and West Somerset constituency from 2010. He is a great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria.
Expenses claims
Liddell-Grainger claimed a total of £166,109 in expenses, including for office, staffing and travelling costs, during 2007–8.Under revised regulations, during 2010-11 he claimed the reduced sum of £147,004 for expenses, the sixth highest of all MPs in that year. Liddell-Grainger has registered his wife as a parliamentary assistant and in 2010 included both his wife and his two eldest children on his list of staff, the only MP to do so at the time.
Email
In 2006, Liddell-Grainger was disqualified from the WriteToThem league table after faking e-mails and replies to himself to improve his “responsiveness rating” on a website which helps people contact their elected representatives. Liddell-Grainger’s spokesman commented that the e-mails had been sent to test the data that the website was judging him on.
At the 2010 general election Liddell-Grainger refused to attend any election hustings or to take part in the BBC’s election coverage. A Facebook group was set up asking “Where’s Ian Liddell-Grainger?” Liddell-Grainger said that he was busy canvassing and dealing with casework.
In February 2014, in the context of flooding on the Somerset Levels, Liddell-Grainger called the chairman of the Environment Agency, Baron Smith of Finsbury a “little git”, and a “coward”. He claimed he would “stick his head down the loo and flush”. The floods took place after exceptionally bad weather, but Liddell-Grainger placed the blame for them on the Environment Agency’s policy of not dredging the local rivers, and said that he would be consulting
with Dutch hydrological experts.
The outburst followed an ominous message earlier suggesting Lord Smith would be faced with an angry mob of farmers upon his arrival in Somerset as communities prepared to vent their frustration at the lack of progress made in tackling the flooding.
“I’ve got all my farmers, we’re waiting for him,” the MP said. “I want to get this ruddy man”.
His late father David Liddell-Grainger served in the Royal Company of Archers between 1955 and 1983. He was a member of Berwickshire County Council from 1958 and 1973 and Deputy Lieutenant of Berwickshire between 1963 and 1985. Liddell-Grainger was Grand Master Mason of the Grand Lodge of Scotland from 1969 until 1974.
Liddell-Grainger and Christine de la Rue (née Schellin) conducted an affair in the 1970s that was open knowledge. As a result, Liddell-Grainger and his then wife, Anne, were divorced in 1981.
Wee Ian probably got soured by life when his late father left the family castle and estate to a son by his 2nd marriage – that sort of rough luck can mark a fella donchaknowit?
Truly a parable for Scotland’s current Life and Times within this misbegotten and irredeemable union.
LikeLiked by 3 people
You really couldn’t make this stuff up, could you? It reads like some C19th third-rate novel.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow. Guessed he wasn’t a pleasant person, but he’s actually a particularly nasty excuse for a human being – I’m beginning to realise that they breed them like that, do you think any humanity gets thrashed out of you at public school?
How on Earth do these people get elected though?
LikeLiked by 2 people
How on Earth do these people get elected though?
Because many in the electorate are selfish Canutes too?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yup, sadly, I think you are right. People seem to like being treated like shit, maybe it gives them something to whine about, but at the same time feel superior and privileged because there is always someone else being treated more shit?
Sociology isn’t my thing!
LikeLike