This week marks one year since I was re-elected to Parliament and since the current Government and Prime Minister took office.
Whatever your politics, it is disappointing that the Government has failed to use its supermajority to tackle some of the big challenges facing our country.
Whether it be properly reforming the NHS, fixing the social care system, stopping the waves of illegal migration, or helping our cities to build and grow again, these are all national issues a freshly elected government could have elected to make progress on and they'd have had my support.
I am concerned to learn of plans to cut the provision of NHS-funded fertility treatment from three cycles to one cycle in Sussex. This decision is incredibly disappointing and will undoubtedly have a huge impact on people in the area facing fertility issues.
Infertility affects around one in ten couples and is recognised by the World Health Organisation as a disease. Like any other medical condition, it deserves appropriate treatment. We don’t deny lung cancer treatment to smokers or dialysis to those with obesity-related conditions.
The new policy from NHS Sussex directly contradicts guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which clearly recommends offering three full cycles of IVF to eligible patients.
The declining birth rate in the UK is a serious problem waiting to happen, and increasing access to fertility treatment could make a real difference.
Across Europe, many countries are responding to similar trends by expanding access to fertility services, recognising the social and economic benefits of supporting people who want to start families. The UK was the birthplace of IVF which has brought hope and joy to so many and has one of the best regulatory systems in the world. It seems a tragedy that unaccountable NHS commissioners are proposing to cut this service which will save a small amount of money but cause a huge amount of distress.
