A fertility clinic has been asked to apologise after starting a woman on in vitro fertilisation treatment, even though she was already pregnant.
Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall today released a report finding Fertility Associates Holdings Limited in breach of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights (the Code) for failures in its care of a woman undergoing a cycle of IVF.
According to the report, a blood test was taken to determine whether or not the woman was in the correct stage of her menstrual cycle to begin an IVF cycle.
“The woman’s progesterone result was found to be higher than expected and indicated that she might already have been pregnant,” the report stated.
“While some of the results of the blood test were relayed to the on-call doctor who was making the decision on whether it was appropriate to begin the IVF cycle, the progesterone result was not seen by any of the clinical staff at this time.”
After this, an on-call doctor approved the woman starting IVF cycle medication and treatment began.
It wasn’t until 10 days later, it was found the woman was already pregnant.
“The woman and her husband subsequently contacted Fertility Associates outlining their concerns that treatment had been provided while the woman was pregnant.
“Fertility Associates responded to these concerns but did not mention the woman’s high progesterone level and failed to provide her husband with the result from this blood test when he requested a copy of all blood test results.”
Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall was critical of the way Fertility Associates handled the incident.
"This case highlights the importance of robust test ordering protocols and effective communication between providers to ensure quality of services, as well as the importance of openly and honestly disclosing information about errors that occur during the provision of a healthcare service,” Wall said.
Wall recommended a number of protocol changes to Fertility Associates which can be read in the full report here.
She also asked them to provide the woman and her family with an apology.
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