East London fertility clinic has licence suspended after losing embryos

A fertility clinic in London has had its licence to operate suspended because of “significant concerns” about the unit, the regulator has said.

The Homerton Fertility Centre has been ordered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to halt any new procedures while investigations continue.

The clinic in east London said there had been three separate incidents highlighting errors in some freezing processes. This resulted in the “tragic loss of a small number of embryos” that either did not survive or became “undetectable”, which means an embryo stored in frozen liquid solution in a container cannot be found during subsequent thawing.

The clinic has informed the patients affected and apologised for any distress caused.

Homerton Healthcare NHS foundation trust said it began an investigation in late 2023 and immediately made regulators fully aware of it. The HFEA is now conducting its own investigation alongside the trust.

In a statement, the clinic said that while the investigators had not been able to find any direct cause of the errors, it had made changes in the unit to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.

All staff now work in pairs to ensure all clinical activities are checked by two healthcare professionals, competencies of staff within the unit have been rechecked, and security at the unit has been increased.

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Source: The Guardian, 8 March 2024