Brainless British medical bureaucrats

How they hate private medicine! And being nearly twice as successful as many of your competitors is just not playing the game!

Britain’s most controversial fertility doctor has also been named its most successful, by the IVF watchdog that wants to ban him from running his clinic. Mohammed Taranissi’s Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre in London has the highest success rate of any British centre offering IVF, according to figures released by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

Almost two thirds of Mr Taranissi’s IVF patients who were aged under 35 and used their own eggs had a baby in 2005, his best result and one of the highest success rates of any clinic in the world. His clinic’s birth rate of 60.7 per cent was twice the national average of 29.6 per cent, and easily outstripped the next best performer, the Lister Fertility Clinic in London, which achieved a rate of 43.1 per cent for the same patient group.

The doctor’s second clinic, the Reproductive Genetics Institute, was fourth in the league table. His position will embarrass the HFEA, which decided in July to strip him of his right to be “person responsible” for the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre after saying that he treated patients at the Reproductive Genetics Institute without a licence. The Reproductive Genetics Institute has been closed and Mr Taranissi has been issued a temporary licence to operate until the middle of next month, when his appeal is expected to be heard. If it fails, he is likely to bring the issue to judicial review.

The High Court recently found that HFEA used unlawful warrants to raid the two clinics in January this year for evidence. Mr Taranissi is also suing the BBC programme Panorama for libel.

Critics of Mr Taranissi claim that he has achieved his high success rate by transferring multiple embryos. Mr Taranissi’s two clinics figure highly in the table for multiple births, which are the biggest side-effect of IVF treatment. The Reproductive Genetics Institute was third in the multiple births table, with 33 per cent of its births twins and 1 per cent triplets; the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre was fourth, with 32 per cent of its births twins and 1 per cent triplets. The Salisbury Fertility Centre had the highest twin rate at 38 per cent, followed by the Peninsular Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Exeter, at 36 per cent. The HFEA is trying to reduce the multiple birth rate from 24 per cent to 10 per cent.

Mr Taranissi said yesterday that high twin and triplet rate was the result of a higher embryo implantation rate in general. “We have a system where we work seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and it shows that you can get outstanding results by doing every stage of the procedure at the right time,” he said. “It would be odd if we did not have a high twin rate. It is a reflection of our higher implantation rate.”

The 2005 HFEA figures support this, as both IVF success rates and multiple births rose in spite of fresh controls on the number of embryos that doctors may transfer. The national success rate was 29.6 per cent for women under 35 and 21.6 per cent overall, up from 28.1 per cent and 20.6 per cent the previous year. The proportion of multiple births rose from 22.7 per cent to 24 per cent.

The new figures are published today as part of the HFEA’s new Find a Clinic website (guide.hfea.gov.uk/ guide), which includes details of every licensed fertility centre in Britain. Alan Doran, the HFEA’s interim chief executive, said: “Good and comprehensive information is vital for any patient making choices about their treatment options. “Statistics are just one of the many things patients need to consider when choosing a clinic. Their age, location, which treatments are available and what the clinic offers to support them are also absolutely key to helping them make informed decisions.” He added: “Multiple births continue to be a concern because of the increased risk to mothers and babies. That is why we announced this week that we will be working with the professional bodies to develop a strategy to reduce multiple births.”

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