Moving borough (Camden/Islington) to access ivf funding?

[Graciez]

Dear all,

I wonder if anyone has moved borough to access the NHS funding in a different borough?

We live in Lewisham (London), where the NHS IVF funding cut off is 39 years old and having tried for 3 years unsuccessfully. The problem is by the time we have tried for 3 years, I would have been 40, in which case I'm automatically excluded from accessing the funding.

We are considering if it's possible/worth moving to Camden/Islington, where we will still qualify.

Questions:

1. Have anyone done this before - and were you successful?

2. Do you know if we can register with the GP but NOT be a resident at Camden/Islington to apply for the funding? or do we have to physically move there?

3. I have heard that sometimes you need to be a resident for 6 months to get a referral - can anyone shed light on this?

4. If we register with Camden/Islington, do we have to re-start the whole referral to a specialist and all the checks that we've done again?

Many thanks for your help - we look forward to your help!

Grace

[emmab178]

Be very careful you might be in a worse position with moving. Check each ccg criteria very carefully.

One thing to note, ccg is dependant on your GP address not your home address. Have a look at the ccg lines and see if you can justify a better gp move. The new practise will ask why your not going to a gp in your area.

Fertility fairness have a good website talking about funding levels.

Also how do the Drs know when you've started that 3 years trying? Unless you're on the pill or been very open with the information and they've put it in your notes that 3 years can start when you say it did

[Graciez in reply to emmab178]

Thanks Emma, much appreciated. Drs will know how long we have been trying as we have told them from the beginning.

Thanks again.

[Redpixie]

I also heard that you have to be in the new ccg for a certain amount of time before you can start ivf with the new one (I have years in my head). I think this is to prevent people moving purely to access more nhs attempts. Make sure you check all the rules before you move.

[Graciez in reply to Redpixie]

Thanks a lot! I will!

[recidwen]

No problem whatsoever!!! We moved to Islington, registered and started referral right away. Now, the time from referral to appointment was long but there was no discussion re funding at all. You do have to live here though and if you have a choice go for Camden because their allowance is better I believe.

Good luck xx

[Graciez]

Thanks so much, that's encouraging! We are prepared to move there if we can get the funding - it's so expensive!

[Mifkipi]

Graciez with regards to the trying 3 years, is that something you read or why the gp told you? I lived in Lewisham when I got my referral last year. I was first referred to hospital for endometriosis. The consultant apparently had messed up a few things which is why it took 6 months for him to refer me to fertility treatments. Was told it could have been quicker. Then I got my appointment at king's 2 months later. Much much faster than I expected. Happy for you to DM me for more details x

[Ronnoco]

My wife and I did this very thing, we moved from Westminster to Camden only to get the 3 rounds of funded IVF. We moved and changed gp, and then did a referral from them that started us, no problem at all

[Hidden]

Hi, just a thought if this is useful... You could see if you could go back to gp and ask for a referral to Kings in Denmark hill as you aren't happy with your clinician at Lewisham hospital if that's where you went to fertility clinic first off. I did that as I first went to PRUH and asked to be re-referred to Kings directly as I wasn't happy with the consultant I saw. At Kings they have self authorisation of funding there so they say yes or no on the spot and maybe have some flexibility e.g. we had a funded cycle and my AMH is 0.8 and I know lots of ccgs won't fund those stats. They also don't have wait times and are an amazing there....

Also just a thought but moving house can be so expensive!!! We just moved house and I swear the costs of moving and new furniture because old furniture doesn't fit and all the additional costs are probably not too far off a basic IVF cycle!!

Good luck with the move if you plan too!!