The Victorian Government has confirmed the commencement of public IVF services in Victoria at the Royal Women’s Hospital and Monash Health. This is pursuant to a previous announcement that it would establish public IVF services for families who may not otherwise be able to afford accessing private IVF health services.
The announcement includes ensuring expansion of the services in the future to Victorian rural and regional areas.
The recommendation to establish public IVF services in Victoria for the first time arose from the “Gorton Report”, the review conducted by Russell Kennedy Principal, Michael Gorton AM “Helping Victorians create families with Assisted Reproductive Treatment – Final Report of the Independent Review of Assisted Reproductive Treatment, May 2019, Michael Gorton AM”.
Consistent with the recommendations of the Gorton Review, the new services will include the establishment of a public sperm and egg bank, to increase the availability of gametes for donation and other ART services. The announcement noted that private IVF costs can in some cases reach up to $10,000 a year. The public IVF services will be free to those who qualify and it is intended that the public fertility services will be available for up to 4,000 Victorians per year.
Satellite sites for public IVF services are intended to be established in the future in Bendigo, Mildura, Shepparton, Geelong, Ballarat, Warrnambool, Epping, Sunshine and Heidelberg.
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For more guidance on these service changes, please contact Michael Gorton AM or Beatrisa Dubinsky. To stay up to date with our IVF and broader health Alerts, you can subscribe to our mailing list here.